Ghana : Indicators

There is no single forest law but a range of legislation governs forestry. There are no laws on community resource management of forests, however. The Forestry Commission website contains several of the parent and subsidiary legislation that regulates forestry in Ghana. There is a general knowledge of the forestry related laws among most stakeholders, even though hard copies of the laws are not readily available in the districts. The law and norms have not been translated into local languages, but have been summarised into a 20 page document which are used in workshops, community meetings and stakeholder engagements. They have also been translated into posters in some local languages.

A review process is on-going as part of the implementation of the Voluntary Partnership Agreement with the European Union with the aim of consolidating the laws. With the emergence of REDD as an important climate change mitigation measure, as well as the development of carbon trading, the ownership of carbon has also come up for discussion within the Ghanaian civil society, but there is clearly no basis in law currently for who actually owns the carbon in forest areas. This should also be an area of focus for legislative reform.