Ghana’s FLEGT licences are here!
It has been a long time coming, but on 18 August 2025 Ghana officially launched its Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) licences, the first African nation and only the second EU FLEGT partner country to do so.
The promise of an EU Green Lane no longer exists, but FLEGT licences still improve EU market access, as licensed timber is considered ‘legal’, with no further legality checks required under the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) (though it should be noted that sustainability checks are still required). FLEGT’s lasting legacy, however, lies in the achievement-s built along the path to licensing.
The lengthy FLEGT process has undeniably improved forest management and enforcement of forest laws: each partner country’s carefully constructed Timber Legality Assurance System (TLAS) is tailored to the national context. In Ghana’s case, for instance, the decision to include timber intended for domestic markets in the TLAS is significant in cutting off an avenue for sale of illegal timber. Overall, the process has brought about a decrease in illegal logging and in deforestation.
This is largely due to another lasting FLEGT achievement: where previously civil society and community organisations were excluded from decision-making, FLEGT insisted on their participation, requiring uneasy actors to cooperate. Today civil society form an integral part of multifaceted stakeholder processes, and Ghana enjoys one of the most open spaces for Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) to contribute efficiently to legislative processes. There is also greater trust among members of government, the private sector and civil society, according to Fern partner Albert Katako, Civic Response, and these actors now cooperate to ensure that the enterprises receiving licences respect the law.
Importantly, the FLEGT Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA) also advanced involvement of local communities in decisions affecting their forests, enhancing respect for Social Responsibility Agreements. Increased oversight has improved community access to the revenues owed them, translating tangibly into such projects as schools and housing for teachers and midwives.
Accountability has been further advanced by third-party involvement: for example, the hue and cry raised by civil society, including Fern (p.13), regarding Ghana’s special ‘ministerial’ logging permits, resulted in reforms that disallow such permits.
Among the most impressive technical achievements that FLEGT has spurred is Ghana’s refined and comprehensive national traceability system, the Ghana wood-tracking system (GWTS). Designed with considerable input from CSOs, chain-of-custody irregularities trigger alerts for the Forestry Commission to investigate, improving enforcement and offering a valuable example for other national systems, and commodities covered by the EUDR.
No one contends that illegal logging and deforestation are no longer threats in Ghana. But the issuance of Ghana’s licences is a victory for Ghana’s efforts to combat forest illegality and to ensure a reputable source of timber – a valuable reminder at a time when the binding FLEGT framework has had a rough few years. Budgets have been cut to both VPA process and to the CSOs that help strengthen them. Threats have, for years, weighed on Liberia’s FLEGT VPA (FW 302), and the EU unilaterally terminated Cameroon’s VPA (FW 307).
In this context, Ghana’s achievement underscores the tenacity of stakeholders who, for 16 years, worked laboriously through complex differences to build a timber system that better serves the environment and social justice. Although the EU appears disenchanted with the process, its partners continue to believe in FLEGT, and see its benefits. Determination that surpasses political impatience encouraged Côte d’Ivoire, for example, to conclude its 10-year, inclusive multistakeholder negotiation and technical preparation by signing a FLEGT agreement with the EU as recently as February 2024 (FW 293). Whereas today’s context is largely adversarial and defined by mistrust, Ghana’s achievement shows that government, CSOs and industry can find cooperative paths to create genuine solutions.
Image: Fern
Categories: News, Forest Watch, European forests, EU Regulation on deforestation-free products
