ROSEWOOD ALERT!!

Legal Working Group Meeting 19th -20th September 2016

Prepared By: Daryl Bosu

A Rocha Ghana

Rosewood is a characteristically dark, highly grained wood from trees in the genera Dalbergia nigra, Tipuana, or Pterocarpus,

In Ghana, depending on where you are its called Krayie, Gyankilia for Gonjas.

The Chinese buyers and traders call it Kosso. And so it has been named in our official books

Rosewood belongs to a category of hardwoods to any number of fine-grained lumbers.

Distribution in Ghana – . Ashanti, Brong Ahafo, Northern, Upper East, Upper West and Volta regions

In the northern parts of Ghana, they grow up to about 20 m high. They constitute an important tree canopy species in the fragile woodland savannah ecosystems in Northern Ghana

Regional Distribution - Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, central African republic, Chad, Cote d’Ivoire, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Togo.

Species Description and Distribution

Resources are not, They Become

Essential Oil

Medicinal purpose

Skin tonner

Dye

Up until the late 2005, Rosewood was not a commodity on the timber market in Ghana…just used for firewood on the local market mostly

The World Ghana

The Beginning of an End First reported trade of Kosso was in 2005 with a trade volume of

126 (M3) in 2005 to over 40,000 (M3) by Volume in 2013. Officially listed Stumpage Fee right up until 1st March 2014 was

GHS 2.39. without any indication of minimum diameter Major harvesting and trade begun in 2008 and continues till now

with no signs of abatement. Two major development projects escalated the comparatively

insignificant trade to the fastest selling timber commodity on the Ghanaian Bui Hydro Dam – 400 Mega watts of Electricity ( Bole District and

some others in Brong Ahafo) Fufulso-Sawla - 147.5km ((3) districts namely Central Gonja District,

West Gonja District and the Sawla-Tuna-Kalba)

Beginning of an End continued.. Critical Points to Note

Both Projects had an EIA conducted

Both Projects were executed by Chinese Companies

There is information to the fact that with respect to the Bui Hydro Dam project a stock survey was conducted to determine the volumes of hardwood species that had to be salvaged for the project to commence. A copy of the stock survey report has not been sighted as yet.

Value Chain of Rosewood

Source: The Rise of Environ mental Crime – A Growing Threat To Natural Resources Peace, Development And Security.A UNEP-INTERPOL Rapid Response Assessment 2016

Communities

Local Merchant

Middle Man

ChinaMarket

32 USD per cubic meter

129 USD per Cubic Meter

325 USD per Cubin Meters

2000 USD per Cubic Meter of Rosewood

The Ghanaian Context

Comparative Trade Volumes For Ghana

1 2 30

5000000

10000000

15000000

20000000

25000000

30000000

35000000

40000000

45000000

40411430

7560767

41411937

Ghana's Rose Wood Trade Value Trend - 2014 to 2106

Year

Trad

eVal

ue in

USD

Ghana received the total revenue of $89,384,134 in rose wood trade from 2014 to 2016. In 2015, Ghana received the trade value of 7,560,767, reflecting a dip of $32,850,663 down from 40,411,430 in 2014. The value indicates that Ghana saw 81.3% loss in 2015 compared to 2014. 2016 saw an increase in revenue of 41,411,937, 2.34% more than 2014 trade value. The percentage increase in trade volume in 2016 from 2015 was 36.69%.

Sad Note: Least known, least researched, most fragile and yet now the second highest traded timber species in terms of volume.

Comparative Trade Volumes for Sub-Region

Nigeria

Benin

Ghana

Guinea

-Bissua Tog

o

Sierra

Leon

e

Gambia

Cote

d'Ivoi

re Mali

Guinea

Liberi

a

Senega

l0

20000000

40000000

60000000

80000000

100000000

12000000010805131192292425

78758744

58541113

281238742011838318020505

115992991709460 188830 22000 0

Trade in KG

Trade in Volumes 2014Ban in Place

0

20000000

40000000

60000000

80000000

100000000

120000000109966551

46902255

2629806818009583 15364143 14578920 14304364

526482586000 0 0 0

Trade Volume

Trade Volumes in 2015

Ban in Place – Evolving Pressure from Civil Society and Ministerial Reiteration of Ban

Comparative Trade Volumes for 2016 – Sub-Region

Nigeria Ghana Gambia sierra Leone Benin Cote d'Ivoire Togo Mali Guinea-Bissau Guinea Liberia Senegal

188353193

81241273

57252268

31211221 29692912

90112444371680 2867900 329300 20800 0 0

Data Sources:

• Rosewood is second highest traded timber species in Ghana

• Second Largest trader in the Sub-region

• Current Stumpage approx. GhS55 from 2.39 just about 2 years ago.

Key Social Red Alerts Due to the largely illegal nature of this activity, only a

few people have received direct remuneration from the trade upsetting suddenly and significantly local economics and shifting social status, class, and asset ownership.

These illegal activities have undermined the rule of law in the various districts, and compromised the principles of democratic governance.

Clear abuses and misuse of Common Public Goods have been observed and recorded in many localities where these illegal activities are happening

The employment from this activity is transitory and as such, key actors will be compelled to look for alternative ways (which may include social vices) of keeping up with their new found high income status.

The associated poor legal compliance and the break down of NRM governance structures and management regimes breeds social disorder and may affect long standing gains made with empowering communities for sustainable natural resource management.

The lack of transparency and the culpability of leadership both political and traditional at Community, District, Regional and National level is recipe for mistrust for leadership and can affect social development indirectly.

Key Ecological Red Alerts• No research and data on species stock and harvestable quotas.

We are leaping bling• Significant areas have been opened up, especially areas around

rivers and streams where these trees grow very well. In the parts where they occur they are only located in gallery forests which mainly occur around watersheds and river banks.

• Rosewood trees constitute an important shade tree in woodland savanna landscape. Targeted felling will mean high surface area temperatures in places previously shaded by these trees, which will have implications for wildlife, understory saplings and also fuel high fire intensity.

• Small pockets of forests which serve as habitat for wildlife species have also been comprised.

• The logging activities has also left behind a lot of residual waste as the merchants are only interested in just about six (6) meters bole length of the treeThe poorly managed salvage permits for hardwood species in planned development areas in the Northern parts of Ghana has led to significant increase in chain-saw activity with impacts on other non-specific and non-targeted species like Mahogany and Afzelia Africana

Key Economic Red Alerts The actual revenue generated from the rosewood harvesting and trade

from both the formal and informal sector is not known. There is very little records to indicate how much has actually accrued

to formal revenue collection agencies like the District Assemblies, revenue collectors in the various Area Councils and revenue accruing to Chiefs who charge ‘royalties’ per truck load of rosewood.

• The various traditional stool lands administrative offices have benefited from revenue accrued to government from both legal and illegal trade in rosewood.

Key Legal Red Alerts Generally, Timber resource allocation & harvesting is based on Timber Resources Management

Act, Act 547 of 1998 and the related Regulation LI 1649 of 1999.

For Rosewood, the issuance of permit to contractors prior to exploitation and monitoring exploitation once the permit has been issued have been the main regulatory mechanism since the surge in its export. The question is does permitted collection volumes equal declared trade volumes?

Rosewood permits have been based on ‘Salvage Permits’. Is this legal?

Are there compliance safeguards accompanying these permits? If yes is the compliance monitoring sufficient and been implemented?

Ban on Harvesting is still in place, that is without doubt confirmed.

Ban on trade permitted for 13 Companies.

Possible implications if point one is true – Is it possible that the Forestry Commission could be involved in trading in illegally sourced timber and declaring it as legal on the international market. Can we build a strong case for VPA and FLEGT?

Possible implication if the Report on Wood Exports for 2016 by the Forestry Commission is authentic – Is Ghana serving as a route for traders from other countries in the sub-region?

Thank You….“…with much respect to, and without ill intent and

offense to all those who are genuinely serving Mother Ghana in the forestry and

the environmental Sector, I propose that the Forestry

Commission should Change its present leadership and

review its vision and mission. The way it stands

right now is just pure mockery and public deceit.

And I quote..