Ghana joins PEFC as a National member

6 June 2016 PEFC system news

"Joining the PEFC Alliance is a vital step towards gaining international recognition for our Ghanaian National Forest Certification System," said Emmanuel Amoah Boakye from the Working Group on Forest Certification.

"Once our system has achieved PEFC endorsement, our country’s forest owners, forestry companies and the whole forestry sector will be able to demonstrate their sustainable forest management practices, here and abroad."

The next steps

"Now we are a PEFC member, we are looking to the next stages of preparing our national system for PEFC endorsement," Mr. Boakye explained. "This includes stakeholder consultations on the draft national standards, pilot testing and then finalizing the standards. Once these are complete we will submit our system to PEFC International."

"It is fantastic to welcome Ghana as the latest member of the PEFC Alliance," said Ben Gunneberg, CEO of PEFC International, following the announcement.

Ghana and the PEFC Collaboration Fund

"Through our Collaboration Fund, we have been providing financial and technical support for the development of the Ghanaian national forest certification system, so it is wonderful to see the country take an important step towards PEFC endorsement by becoming a PEFC member," Mr. Gunneberg concluded.

"While there was already a Ghanaian national standard for the sustainable management of natural forests and plantations, the PEFC Collaboration Fund supported us as we developed the other aspects of a certification system, such as the Group Certification requirements and a Chain of Custody Standard," Mr. Boakye continued.

"Thanks to this support we were able to organize stakeholder meetings and prepare our national standards in line with PEFC framework ready for stakeholder consultation."

Ghana follows Hungary as the latest country whose membership can be traced back to seed funding provided through a PEFC Collaboration Fund project.