It was co-hosted by Proforest and BVRio Environmental Exchange in collaboration with the Government through the Ministry of Food and Agriculture.

The workshop is aimed at promoting legal compliance as a first step for businesses to demonstrate compliance with national and international commitments and the promotion of smallholder and gender inclusion.

It also explored the extent to which legal compliance could support reducing forest loss and provide a platform for developing more responsible production and sourcing.    The workshop comes at a time when governments worldwide are strengthening the legal frameworks that regulate the trade of wood and wood products.

 Speaking on the ‘Legality and Sustainability in the Timber and Agriculture Supply Chains,’ the Minister of Food and Agriculture (MOFA), Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto, in a speech read on his behalf, said establishing partnerships and working with all stakeholders was the best way to find solutions to the challenges the region faced in its quest to develop agricultural commodities successfully.

“Much as this work seems tailored towards helping companies, we are in this ‘boat’ together and as a government, we are interested in finding out how effective our legal framework is in promoting sustainability and helping the sector to grow.”        

He added that the government would continue to engage all stakeholders in the agricultural supply chain in the quest to achieve sustainable commodity agriculture.

Nana Darko Cobbina of Proforest said commodity agriculture was a key element of the region’s development strategy, adding that the concern was about government, ‘we are interested in finding out how effective our legal framework is in promoting sustainability and helping the sector to grow.” 

He added that the government would continue to engage all stakeholders in the agricultural supply chain in the quest to achieve sustainable commodity agriculture.Nana Darko Cobbina of Proforest said commodity agriculture was a key element of the region’s development strategy, adding that the concern was about maximising the positive effect and minimising the negative aspects since they could contribute to local livelihoods and national developments.

He said although responsible sourcing and production commitments were voluntary, legal compliance was not.Against this background, he said, all producers, large or small should operate legally and that implementing legal requirements should, therefore, be part of the normal cost of doing business not an additional burden.

“Focusing on legal compliance can provide a framework for companies to work with governments to create large-scale long-term change and providing businesses and stakeholders with guidance on legal compliance, synthesise from research and stakeholder engagement to underpin the local approaches to provide technical support to implement the guidance,” he said.

The Africa Regional Director of Proforest, Mr Abraham Baffoe, outlined some legal benchmarking undertaken in some African countries such as the Tropical Forest Alliance (TFA) 2020 initiative, the Round-table for Sustainable Palm Oil and the Forest Stewardship Council.

“Sustainability is important in natural resources. We are focusing on legality compliance so as to help strengthen enforcement in the laws to promote sustainability,” he said. He said Proforest’s programmes created the enabling environment and built the needed capacity for the private sector, working with governments and civil society to deliver agricultural and forest commodities sustainably at scale.

BVRio’s Director, Pedro Moura Costa, said with lower production costs and no taxes, illegal sources was able to displace legal and certified production.“Legal compliance alone cannot fully meet the deforestation-free commitments made by many companies, but it can make a significant contribution,” he said.

Participants from Ghana, Liberia, Côte d’Ivoire and Cameroon attended the two-day workshop.