Ghana, EU sign agreement on timber export

20/12/10

Story: Musah Yahaya Jafaru
GHANA and the European Union (EU) have signed an agreement to facilitate the exportation of legally acquired timber from Ghana to the EU market.
The Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Alhaji Collins Dauda, signed for Ghana, while the Head of the EU Delegation in Ghana, Ambassador Claude Maerten, initialled it for the EU.
The signing of the agreement followed a meeting by the Joint Monitoring and Review Mechanism on the Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA) which called for the exportation of only timber from legal sources.
Ghana was the first timber-producing country to sign the VPA with the EU in November 2009.
Alhaji Dauda acknowledged that the VPA had an impact on the livelihood of the people as it encouraged the legal exportation of timber and opened up the market for timber.
He said Ghana would co-ordinate the plantation development programme, the supply of legal timber and forest law enforcement, governance and trade initiative.
Alhaji Dauda welcomed ongoing studies by both Ghana and the EU to address livelihood challenges.
Ambassador Maerten said the recent adoption of the EU timber regulation provided considerable support for Ghana and other VPA negotiating countries to ensure a level playing field on the EU timber market.
He said the regulation provided justification and reward for countries such as Ghana who had concluded VPAs and acted as an incentive for other timber exporting countries to commence negotiations on the VPAs.