Ghana’s Forestry Development Master Plan is expected to set government and private sector spending by US$8.9 billion over 20 years on forest management.
In tandem with the 2012 Forest and Wildlife Policy, the FDMP development ensures the conservation and sustainable development of forest and wildlife resources whilst ensuring good governance and transparency. It will also develop financing mechanisms for forest management, plantation development, tertiary processing activities as well as micro enterprises.
The objectives of the plan also reflect Ghana’s national development agenda, the National Climate Change Action Plan, Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations, and the UN sustainable development goal 15.
Phase I is a five-year continuation programme under the 1996 Forestry Development Master plan where current programmes and reforms will continue, mainly:
- To implement the Plantation Development Strategy, Wood Tracking System (WTS) under the Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA) Programme
- Move into full scale implementation of the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) strategy
- Continue with the implementation of the on-going Forest Investment Programme, and support the implementation of the Forestry Industry Development Blueprint. An improved governance programme will be put in place to implement collaborative resource management, contain illegal logging, and support higher private sector participation in the sector development programmes.
Phase II is a ten-year continuation programme that will ensure the full implementation of the ongoing projects within the current approved budget with expected future increase in funding for the planned programmes.
Phase III, the last five years will consolidate all the gains made under the two phases in order to ensure an efficient self-financing forestry sector. The plan will enforce sustainable forest management principles and continue the conservation and sustainable development of forest and wildlife resources.
From the plans of the 20th Century, the Ghanaian forestry sector intends to make a paradigm shift to create a balance between timber production, good governance, biodiversity conservation and effective enterprise development to satisfy the domestic wood demand.
