Forestry Commission urged to step up education on VPA

The Forestry Commission has been urged to step up the education on the Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA) to aid wood exporters to adopt best practices to meet the increasing sophistication and demands of the international market.

Togbui Mawufeame Fugah, President of the Anloga Carpenters Union in Kumasi, said more was needed to be done to help wood workers at all levels to have better understanding of the agreement.

The VPAs are bilateral agreements signed by the European Union (EU) and tropical wood exporting countries aimed at improving forest governance and ensure that timber products entering the European markets are from legal sources.

The agreements provide support for governance reforms and strengthening of institutions to undertake effective regulation and enforcement of sustainable forest management.

Togbui Fugah, addressing a day’s workshop on the VPA at the Sokoban Wood Village, said wood workers as key stakeholders in the timber industry could play significant role in the fight to check illegal chainsaw operations.

He said it was therefore important they were adequately assisted to appreciate the need to avoid practices that fueled the illegal timber trade.

The workshop was held under the auspices of the Wood Village Consult and Small-Scale Timber Millers Association.

Togbui Fugah said it was time sawmills were also closely monitored to make sure that 20 per cent of their products were sold on the local market as required by law.

This was necessary to make it easier for wood workers to have access to lumber to sustain the industry.

Mr Yaro Wukenya, an official of the Wood Village Consult, appealed for the construction of a health centre at the wood village to address the health needs of workers.

Source: GNA

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