Abstract
Based on detailed income data of 478 rural households, the nexus between forest, trees and rural livelihoods in Ghana is investigated and applied to assess implications of the Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA) between the EU and Ghana on illegal logging. It is found that, after crops, environmental income (cash and subsistence) is the most important contributor to households’ total yearly net income. Fuelwood, bushmeat and wild foods from plants are the most important environmental products. The survey shows meagre income from timber and poles, but is likely to underreport this source due to its illegal nature. Yet, when the likely incomes from illegal timber harvesting as estimated by other studies are compared with this study’s comprehensive livelihood data, it is obvious that an imagined full implementation of the VPA would have limited impact on the majority of rural households. Rather than focusing on social safeguards to mitigate any perceived or real negative impacts in the short-term, policy makers in Ghana—and the donors supporting them—should focus on other aspects of the VPA, notably forest policy reforms and in particular reforms that devolve management rights and benefits to trees on farm and fallow land to those occupying and cultivating the land. Such efforts would provide incentive for timber production and thus enhance rural livelihoods, while combatting illegal logging, deforestation and forest degradation.
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Notes
In designated forest reserves, the so-called Globally Significant Biodiversity Areas (GSBAs), all harvest and collection, even of NTFPs, is strictly prohibited.
The survey was undertaken prior to the outbreak of Ebola in West Africa in 2013 which—at least temporarily—may have reduced consumption of bush meat.
Shocks include crop loss, serious illness in household, death of a productive household member, livestock loss or death (due to theft, disease or drought), asset loss (due to fire, theft or flooding) and organisation of an expensive social event (e.g. funeral or wedding). Illness, death and crop failure were the most common shocks.
See also Hansen (2011) on payments to farmers from chainsaw operators.
Additional jobs are created in domestic timber markets, estimated at 27,000 in re-sawing and 2000 in retailing.
An effort was made in the survey to inform households of the purpose of the investigation and that the research was not associated with law enforcement.
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Acknowledgments
We wish to thank the households who participated in the survey and the enumerators employed at the Forestry Research Institute of Ghana (FORIG) who carried out the fieldwork. We acknowledge the excellent comments and suggestions from two anonymous reviewers and from the editor, Steve Harrison. The work was supported by the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), the Danish International Development Assistance (Danida), the University of Copenhagen and FORIG.
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Hansen, C.P., Pouliot, M., Marfo, E. et al. Forests, Timber and Rural Livelihoods: Implications for Social Safeguards in the Ghana-EU Voluntary Partnership Agreement. Small-scale Forestry 14, 401–422 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11842-015-9295-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11842-015-9295-9