CSOs to strengthen accountability in forestry sector

November 6, 2026

2 minutes read

FIFTEEN representatives of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) are undergoing training to independently monitor timber legality audits and strengthen accountability in Ghana’s forestry sector under a £1.4 million regional forest governance project.

The five-day capacity-building workshop, which began on Wednesday, is being organised by the Forestry Commission in collaboration with EcoCare Ghana to address information gaps, close regulatory loopholes and promote transparency in forest management.

The participants are expected to serve as independent observers during audits conducted by the Timber Validation Department (TVD) of the Forestry Commission, documenting field observations and submitting evidence-based reports to relevant state institutions.

The workshop, dubbed “Holding Power Accountable in Forest Governance Through Citizen Action”, forms part of the Akofena Project, funded by the United Kingdom’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) through its Forest Governance, Markets and Climate (FGMC) Programme.

The project, which runs from November 2025 to February 2029, is being implemented in Ghana and Liberia, with a particular focus on forest-fringe communities where active Timber Utilisation Contracts (TUCs) are in operation.

EcoCare Ghana is the lead implementing organisation, working with regional partners, Civic Response in Ghana and the Civil Society Independent Forest Monitor (CSIFM) in Liberia.

The Project Manager of EcoCare Ghana, Mr Enoch Danso Acheampong, said independent civil society monitoring was necessary to strengthen confidence in the country’s timber legality assurance system.

He explained that when the same state institutions responsible for implementing forestry regulations also conducted compliance audits, there was a risk of perceived or actual conflicts of interest.

“When governments implement this legality assurance system and are simultaneously the same people doing the audit, it becomes like ‘scratch my back, I scratch your back’. The reports sent out risk greenwashing international bodies, while what is actually happening in our environment tells a completely different story,” he said.

Mr Acheampong stressed that the CSOs would not replace the statutory auditing institutions but would independently observe their activities, document developments on the ground and report their findings to the relevant ministries.

He said the approach would help strengthen the integrity of the Ghana Timber Legality Assurance System (GTLAS) and ensure that official reports reflected conditions in forest communities.

For his part, the Legal Timber Verification Manager of the Forestry Commission, Dr Frank Ankomah, said the training would equip civil society actors with a better understanding of the Commission’s legality auditing processes and enable them to contribute meaningfully to forest governance.

He said some public criticisms of the Commission’s operations stemmed from inadequate information about the procedures used by the TVD to verify timber legality.

The training, he said, would enable participants to observe the processes and obtain firsthand information to support informed public discussions.

Dr Ankomah explained that legal timber operations were subjected to electronic wood tracking and several layers of audits at the district, regional and national levels to ensure compliance with forestry regulations.

BY KINGSLEY E. HOPE, KUMASI

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