Accra, July 19, GNA - Mr Gareth Thomas, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State of Department for International Development of the United Kingdom (UK), on Wednesday said the European Union (EU) would continue to buy only legal timber from Ghana.
He said the only incentive that could be awarded to Ghana
in the promotion of its timber exports was for the Local
Government Ministry of the United Kingdom to expand its
quota of legally exported timber from Ghana. "We will not tolerate any illegal timber on our markets," he
told Mr Andrews Adjei-Yeboah, Deputy Minister of Lands,
Forestry and Mines, when he led a four-member delegation to
his office to discuss issues pertaining to timber exports to the
UK and the EU markets. Mr Thomas said to prevent the export of timber that would
be rejected on the EU market his office was forming a
partnership with the Ministry of Lands, Forestry and Mines to
put in place modalities that would ensure a smooth export
process. The partnership would be in the form of financial and
technical assistance to speed up the sensitization process
among stakeholders on the need to discourage the marketing
of illegal timber, both locally and for export. Mr Thomas said 24 million pounds had been made
available for sensitization programmes in timber-exporting
countries in Africa and Asia to drum home the need for such
countries to focus on only legal timber for export. "There is the urgent need for all countries to discourage the
use of illegal timber to ensure sustainability," he said. Mr Adjei-Yeboah said Ghana was poised to comply with the
Voluntary Partnership Agreement with the EU that mandated
member countries to ensure that only legal timber was
exported to the EU. He said the issue of illegal timber could not be wished away
or eliminated in a day due to demands on the domestic
markets. "The issue of illegal timber has to do with a large number of
people's livelihood and so care has to be taken in dealing with
those involved since it has several dimensions in terms of
social, economic and financial implications, among other
things. Mr Adjei-Yeboah said because the Government was
discouraging the sale of illegal timber, some Police officers
were taking advantage of the situation to enrich themselves by
impounding and defrauding people they suspected of
engaging in the trade. "We want to create a forum with timber merchants where we
would be able to dialogue with them and make them
appreciate the Government's effort in curbing the sale of illegal
timber," he said. The team, earlier in the day paid a working visit to the
Timber Market in Accra to have a first hand knowledge about
the domestic timber trade. n
