Media charged to improve accountability in Forestry

Professionals in the media industry have been urged to improve accountability in forest governance in Ghana to save the country from the loss of industry.

Mrs. Linda Ofori-Kwafo, Executive Secretary, Ghana Anti-Corruption Coalition, in a recent presentation at Koforidua, charged the media to be abreast with the areas of corruption in forestry and collaborate with other mandated institutions and organisations to fight the canker.

She observed that illegal logging and other forms of corruption in the forestry industry was causing the state to lose huge chunks of revenue, and tasked Journalists to go and uncover those shady deals and save the country from further losses.

The Executive Secretary who took the participant through strategies of whistleblowing and ways of fighting corruption, urged them to work in a team, study the legal provisions and be abreast with the various constitutional provisions for forestry governance in order to effectively go about their work.

She charged the media to be the change they want to see, to conduct thorough investigations, become effective in the area of their facilitation and put pressure on the state institutions to deliver. “In doing this make sure you don‘t get corrupted yourself” she added.

Similarly, Dr.  Emmanuel Marfo, Lecturer at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, bemoaned the low media coverage given to forest governance issues, and noted the responsibility of the media to ensure greater accountability and transparency in the sector.

He said the media should for instance investigate whether communities in which concession were granted for companies for timber logging were benefiting from the Social Responsibility Agreement.

Stating that there was nothing like Special Permit in our laws, the Lecturer said “if we can stop the issuance of special permit, we will stop the illegalities in the industry”.

He therefore called for accountability and urged that the provisions in the statute books be made known to the stakeholders and public alike.

Dr. Marfo noted that under the current regime of sharing benefits of revenue generated from the forest resources, the farmer, who often tenders the trees and on whose farm the trees were felled receives nothing; and called for efforts to address the anomaly.    

Mr. Nehemiah Tettey Odjer-Bio, EU-SCIPFLEG Project Field Coordinator.
Friends of the Earth-Ghana, said it was important to help curtail illegal forestry activities in the country, adding that although the Non-Government Organisations were doing their part and urged the media to complement these efforts to ensure there was greater transparency and accountability in the management of our forest or suffer the consequence of our forest being wiped out in the country.

To make much impact, he entreated stakeholders under the Voluntary Partnership Arrangement (VPA) and the Forest Law Enforcement in Governance, to effectively play their roles to ensure accountability and transparency.

Participants at the end of the programme, pledged to build a vibrant network, work assiduously to unearth the ills and commend the good efforts in advanced in areas of forest governance.