Ghana is in the final stages of becoming the 1st African country to issue the Forest Law Enforcement Governance and Trade (FLEGT) license to cover its timber and wood products traded on the European Market.
The feat was achieved during the 11th Joint Monitoring and Review Mechanism meeting held between Ghana and the EU in Brussels between 20th – 26th September, 2023.
The EU FLEGT Action Plan sets out seven measures that together prevent the importation of illegal timber into the EU, improve the supply of legal timber and increase demand for timber from responsibly managed forests: 1) Supporting timber-producing countries; 2) Promoting trade in legal timber; 3) Promoting environmentally and socially beneficial public procurement policies; 4) Supporting private-sector initiatives; 5) Financing and investment safeguards; 6) Using existing or new legislation; 7) Addressing the problem of conflict timber.
An important element of the trade-related measures set out in the Action Plan is to engage major timber consumers and explore ways of working together towards a comprehensive multilateral framework to restrict illegally harvested timber from entering their markets.
This places Ghana as the 2nd country in the world after Indonesia to begin the trade in legally certified wood and wood products with the EU under the Forest Law Enforcement Governance and Trade (FLEGT) mechanism.
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