By
Florence Afriyie Mensah, GNA
Kintampo (B/E),
Oct.21, GNA – Tropenbos-Ghana, has called for more collaboration between the
government agencies and other actors in the charcoal production value chain, to
aid the capturing of adequate data on how all producers in the value chain,
maintain or lose access to benefits.
Mrs Mercy
Owusu-Ansah, the Director of Tropenbos – Ghana, who was sharing the findings of
a study by Trobenbos at a forum, said the current tracking system captured only
about 48 per cent of the total charcoal produce transported, and marketed in
Ghana, though 450,000 people were involved in that value chain,
The National
Charcoal Forum was held in Kintampo in the Bono-East Region where the four year
study – “Property, Access and Exclusion along the Charcoal Commodity Chain in
Ghana- from wood cutters to end users.
Abbreviated (AX)”,
the workshop examines how actors along Ghana’s value charcoal chain gain,
maintain or lose access to benefits, whiles also looking at the environmental
sustainability in the production of charcoal, increasingly being used by most
households in the country.
Mrs Owusu-Ansah said
charcoal remained an integral part of developing economies energy demand which
was transported throughout the year irrespective of season (wet or dry).
However, the current
system of tracking is not rigorous and through enough to rope in all producers
in the value chain including small-scalers in the Central, Western and
Western-North Regions.
According to her,
the study put the production level of charcoal from 589,891.86 tons in 2016 to
a total of 911,000, at the end of year 2018, providing primary energy for 64
per cent of the local population.
A total of 450,000
people are also currently engaged in the production, transportation and
marketing of charcoal, as their primary occupation.
These, the study
found, were resident in the Bono, Bono-East and Ahafo Regions, which are noted
to be the major producing areas accounting for 34.35 per cent.
North-East, Savannah
and the Northern Regions, were the second largest producing areas also
representing 26.74 per cent while Western and Western North Regions recorded
least with 0.003 per cent.
Tropenbos Ghana, is
an independent NGO, which has the mission to promote distinctive, scientific
input into sustainable forest management, through local and international
cooperation.
DANIDA provided
sponsorship for the four-year study.
GNA
