1. MAKING THE FOREST SECTOR TRANSPARENT PROJECT (MFSTP) Forest Governance Scorecards in Ghana Presentation At The West Africa Forest Governance Forum 7 th June 2011

2. Background to the Project – Participating countries and duration – Project goal, purpose and outputs – Activities Transparency Report Card – Purpose – Methodology – Findings And Recommendations Outline For Presentation

3. Making the Forest Sector Transparent Background to the Project

4. MFSTP:- Overview Participating Countries Ghana, Cameroun, Liberia, Peru Congo DR, Guatemala Ecuador (New Countries) Duration 4.5 years (2009-2013)

5. Project Objectives  Government accountability in forest management through active civil society engagement secured  Increase in the quantity and effectiveness of initiatives to improve forest management systems to benefit local communities and forest-dependent people  Increased access to information on forest sector transparency  Effective advocacy activities in the target districts and forest communities that demand improved transparency in forest management and governance  A network of organizations working on forest governance that can support one another in advocacy and research efforts during and beyond the life of the project.

6. Main Activities Special Learning Opportunities Report Card Activities

7. Transparency Report Card

8. Report Card - Purpose  Assess and compare disclosure of information on forest use and management in Ghana.  enables the comparison between the quality, quantity, and accessibility of forest sector information provided to the public in Ghana and the other participating countries.  Presents what information is available or not, and assesses the usefulness of available evidence for transparency and governance purposes.

9. Areas of Investigation Areas Economic Institutions Socio-cultural Environment Legal/Policy Indicators (Revenue-Royalties, SRAs, Compensations) Compensation Logging Procedures Extra-sectorial activities affecting forests Communication Impacts of logging Social Responsibility/Royalties Access to NTFPs TUPs Climate change/REDD Logging Procedures Forest law enforcement Management Plans for TUCs Cooperate Responsibility Reduced impact logging Modified Taungya and Planters’ rights Tenure and Land Use

10. Data Collection Study was conducted in 6 districts in the Western and Brong Ahafo Regions. (2009 and 2010) Mainly based on objective “yes/no” questions about the availability and reliability of information in Ghana In all, a total of about 300 questionnaires were given out in 2009 and 323 in 2010. Administrative Districts of Study Tarkwa Nsuaem Wassa Amenfi East Juabeso Sunyani Municipal Goaso Dormaa

11. Findings and Recommendations

12. Main findings are summarised on website : www.foresttransparency.info Traffic light system used YES PARTIAL NO Findings

13. Findings on Key transparency indicators o Freedom of information law? o Is the Forest Law available? o Land ownership maps public? o Permit documents public? o Logging volumes public? o Mining vs forest strategy? o Community funds consultation? o Any national forest forum? o Revenues redistributed public?

14. Findings - Revenue collection and distribution  The level of awareness of revenue from timber royalties is very high among the different stakeholders except community members.  Answering the question “Do you know about revenue from timber royalties?” only a third of community members responded “Yes” and 74% of chiefs had knowledge of royalties.  All other stakeholders knew about royalties  Awareness on legal obligation on SRA is low but practice of companies paying SRA is common

15.  Forestry Commission in the last 4-5 years has been consistent in the publication of the half-yearly disbursement and distribution of timber revenue to the statutory stakeholders.  The figures are published in quite a detail and contain the right and accurate information and posted on FC website.  However publication is usually way behind schedule. The latest publication actually covers the first half year of 2008.  However only 3% of all respondents knew about the publication of these revenues  No respondent had ever used the information in the publication Findings - Revenue collection and distribution

16. Recommendations:- General  Civil society organisations engaged in the forest sector must be proactive in using all available means to press for transparent forest governance.  Greater transparency will not just happen because there are provisions in the law for it, it has to be worked at. (for instance, use information on the FC website and engage the various stakeholders)  The FC must intensify their education and awareness campaigns in the communities in response to the 1994 Forest and Wildlife policy of Collaborative Forest Management.  They need to adequately inform other stakeholders on forest management issues

17. FC should demonstrably involve the Office of Administrator of Stool Lands, traditional authorities, and District Assemblies in the calculation of logging revenues in order that these calculations are transparent. FC should provide a ‘.pdf’ version of the disbursements of royalties from timber resources to enable others to assist in its reproduction and dissemination. Should ensure that in the course of VPA implementation a publically accessible web interface is constructed to show key sector information relating to permits, production and revenue.

18. Thanks for Your Attention