IUCN, the International Union for Conservation of Nature

Given that the EU receives the majority of Ghana’s timber exports, the VPA has the potential to dramatically impact forest governance in the country.  This will entail a change in operations and benefits for a variety of stakeholders, some of whom may feel that their short-term interests are being hindered by the VPA.  Fortunately, as a condition of the EU’s support to Ghana on the VPA, it requires that the Ghanaian Government consults with a wide variety of stakeholders on the VPA’s components and considers their input in creating the Government’s final negotiating position.  To this end the Government of Ghana has created a multi-stakeholder VPA Steering Committee to provide it with advice. The Committee is comprised of representatives from various government agencies, the timber industry and civil society. 

IUCN is playing a crucial role in the development of the VPA in Ghana.  The VPA process is generating information that needs to be shared with a variety of stakeholder groups to ensure the agreement’s success.  IUCN is assisting the VPA Steering Committee in this regard by creating and beginning to implement a communications strategy.  IUCN’s second area of intervention with the VPA is the facilitation of the multi-stakeholder consultations required by the EU.  At the onset of its involvement with the Government of Ghana on VPA issues, IUCN signed several memoranda of understanding to clarify its role and responsibilities.  Importantly, it was agreed that IUCN would maintain an entirely neutral position with respect to the consultations, as a measure to ensure that IUCN would not try to shape the content of discussions nor the opinions of stakeholders.  IUCN’s goals for the VPA consultations are to ensure that the process is both inclusive and transparent.  As a partnership-based organization with members from the Ghanaian private sector, civil society and public agencies, IUCN has strong convening power and is well-positioned to assist the Steering Committee with the VPA process.  Moreover, IUCN has extensive experience in the fields of multi-stakeholder consultations and communications, enabling it to offer strong process-related advice to the VPA Steering Committee.

When IUCN first started working with the VPA Steering Committee, it commissioned a report that presented a variety of possible models for the multi-stakeholder consultations, and detailed the roles and responsibilities of the key parties.  This document exposed the Steering Committee to a number of organizational options for the VPA’s development.  Subsequently, the Committee created a VPA process structure and timeline (the VPA “roadmap”) towards signing the final agreement.  Inspired by elements of the consultant’s report, the VPA process structure includes working groups with representatives from the various stakeholder groups to develop each of the VPA’s components and a meeting schedule to keep the development process on track. 

In collaboration with the VPA Steering Committee, IUCN has facilitated three major stakeholder consultations with different groups: civil society (mainly NGOs), the private sector, and traditional authorities.  The (latter two) events were attended by national television and print media. Each meeting resulted in the production of a stakeholder communiqué expressing the group’s concerns and aspirations for the VPA in Ghana.  These communiqués will be considered by the Steering Committee in the advice they provide to the Government.  The Steering Committee will also explain to stakeholder groups how their feedback informed the Committee’s recommendations to Government.  A consultative meeting with the public sector is being planned and will occur early in 2008.  In addition to formal consultations, IUCN supported fourteen sensitization workshops with forest communities in order to share basic information about EU FLEGT and the VPA.  During these workshops feedback was solicited and a flyer designed for forest communities was distributed. 

IUCN is also responsible for communications activities to compliment the development and implementation of the VPA.  It has created a communications strategy that has recently been approved by the VPA Steering Committee.  The goal of the VPA communications strategy is to create an environment that is supportive of sustainable forest management and the reduction of illegal logging activities.  The strategy includes measures to inform the general public and key stakeholders about the specifics of the VPA, and about illegal logging and forest governance in Ghana.  IUCN will hire a Ghanaian media consultant to implement some of the domestic communications activities and will compliment the consultant’s work by creating materials for the international community. 

The consultation and communication activities for the VPA offer a much-needed opportunity to engage a broad variety of stakeholders in the discussion on forest governance in Ghana.  Although the VPA itself will be comprised of a number of technical elements designed to control the trade in illegal timber, the processes surrounding its development afford an opportunity to discuss the broader challenges facing forest management in the country.  For example, the VPA process has spurred a debate about illegal logging activities associated with the domestic market, including how to address the problem of chainsaw logging.  IUCN has played a key role in enabling groups that are often marginalized in discussions on resource management to participate and learn about policies and programmes that affect them.  There are still challenges in this regard as not all relevant stakeholders have been successfully engaged in the VPA dialogue, but IUCN is positive about the progress that has been made so far. 

The Government of Ghana plans to finalize its VPA negotiating position by June 2008.   IUCN will continue to support the VPA Steering Committee in the upcoming months to ensure that the concerns and aspirations of those who will be affected by the agreement are considered and to create awareness and support for the VPA through communications activities.

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