Spotlight falls on illegal timber trade

(Vatican Radio) Representatives from West and Central African countries are Thursday concluding a conference in Accra, Ghana aimed at putting a stop to the illegal timber trade.

The three day regional conference entitled “Experiences from the Voluntary Partnership Agreements (VPA) process in West and Central African countries”, is being organized by the Forestry Commission of Ghana in partnership with the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

The gathered has been tackling themes such as timber tracking systems, and monitoring forest governance.

“Some of the main ideas coming out have really been the need for increased co-ordination and partnership between institutions in countries but also increase co-ordination between countries themselves”, says Robert Simpson, Programme Manager for the ACP-FLEGT Support Programme, which is financing the conference.

He told Lydia O’Kane that already five timber-producing countries Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Ghana, Liberia and the Republic of Congo in the region have signed Voluntary Partnership Agreements (VPAs). “There’s a significant momentum in the world moving towards better governance and more traceability of timber…” Listen to Lydia O’Kane’s interview with Robert Simpson