Project objectives and intended outcome

The three year project (2008 - 2010) consists of an action research contribution to current VPA negotiations and further forest reforms in Ghana and Indonesia through developing mechanisms for improved policy dialogue and stakeholder participation in a limited number of pilots. Both Ghana and Indonesia recognise the urgency to address legality issues of logging practices. Partner organisations and government officials in both countries have indicated the need to have better insight into how the Timber Legality Systems and enforcement might affect regional resource management practices and local livelihoods. The comparison of action learning experiences in the two countries will offer useful insights in the ways policy dialogue and the support for policy implementation can be reinforced using specific tools and methods for data collection and analysis and by developing policy options or scenarios.

The long term objective of the project is to strengthen livelihood considerations in forest policy development to ensure negotiated implementation and adherence at all levels.

The short term objectives of the project are:

• to develop broadly supported governance mechanisms that manage the consequences of VPA legal timber legality standards on local livelihoods; and
• to strengthen the capacity of actors to (re)negotiate institutional arrangements for sustainable resource use.

The project postulates that competing claims from national and local stakeholders on the resource base must be considered in the wider context of rural livelihood options and alternative strategies. A landscape approach can assist in placing these in a wider national or regional perspective, thus generating alternative scenarios and evidence based policy alternatives. This could lead to better informed and realistic policy and implementation guidelines, based on consultation and dialogue mechanisms among stakeholders, which ensure broad policy support and acceptance for equitable, credible and transparent natural resources management. Positive results are expected to contribute to an inclusion of livelihood consideration in the VPA implementation.

The project targets the stakeholders in chainsaw lumbering, in particular those directly involved in this practice and their representatives; national Government agencies dealing with forest, tax and law enforcement (such as the Forestry Commission); regional and district governments; the supplying and downstream industry of chainsaw logging (suppliers of chainsaws, buyers of lumber); affected owners and right holders of forest resources (traditional rulers and local communities), the “regular” sawmilling industry and existing community forestry organisations.