Rosewood exports: NPP members obtain permits despite ban – EIA Report

General News of Tuesday, July 30, 2019

Source: Myjoyonline.com

2019-07-30

An investigation report from the Washington-based Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) says the Forestry Commission continues to allow members of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) to export rosewood despite a prohibition.

According to the report, undercover investigators have found that powerful Chinese and Ghanaian traffickers continue to harvest and ship rosewood out of the country thanks to "the help of the ruling party and the government. complicity of all levels of government ".

"They have put in place an institutionalized system, fueled by bribes, to mask illegal harvesting, transport, export and CITES. [Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species]- wood license, "says the report.

The Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Kwaku Asomah Kyeremeh, announced in March the renewal of a long-standing ban on harvesting, transporting and exporting rosewood.

His announcement took place just days after a Joy News documentary, "Killing Our Roses," revealed that previous bans were being flouted.

According to the report, the illegal trade is being pursued by "the fraudulent use of" salvage permits ", the misrepresentation of timber species, the use of escorts for dealing with checkpoints, falsification of official documents and retrospective issuance of CITES permits ".

EIA said its investigators had discovered that rosewood was exported from China to China on June 18, 2019.

According to a press release accompanying the report issued by EIA-US communications officer Lindsay Moran, senior officials of the Forestry Commission are complicit in the illegal trade.

"Traffickers told EIA investigators that officials from the Forestry Commission, at local, regional and national levels, were complicit in the program. A trafficker mentioned that [an official] responsible for signing CITES export permits, even receives a percentage of the value of the exported rosewood, "he said.

"Indeed, the EIA has also discovered a CITES permit for a shipment of rosewood, signed by [the official], which was issued after the unloading of timber in the Chinese port of Ningbo, Zhejiang Province, in flagrant violation of the International Convention, "the statement said.

Kill the rosewood

The report indicates that the said permit was signed on May 15, 2019, several months after the announcement of the new ban by the Minister.

"According to the traffickers, bribes and even a" percentage of the sale "paid to the agent (undisclosed name) allowed them to export illegal source rosewood with permits CITES, "says the report.

According to an badysis conducted by the EIA, since the announcement of the first ban on harvesting rosewood threatened in 2012, more than 540,000 tons of rosewood – the equivalent of 23,478 containers twenty feet or about 6 million trees – were illegally harvested and exported to China.

According to the EIA, available figures show that rosewood exports increased during the period when the ban was supposed to come into effect. Between January 2015 and June 2019, Ghana exported nearly $ 300 million worth of rosewood to China alone.

According to the report, their undercover investigators discovered that illegal rosewood licenses were granted to governing members of the New Patriotic Party to make money. Party members then sell the export permit to businesses and individuals who will fall and export.

The report is worried about the high levels of corruption, collusion, institutionalized trafficking and lack of control that have been at the heart of the rosewood crisis, have severely damaged Ghana's forests and rural communities.

"The illegal logging and trade of rosewood has devastating effects on Ghana's forests and the communities that depend on them," said Lisa Handy, director of the Forests Campaign at EIA-US.

Kill the rosewood

According to the EIA, "transport certificates" issued by the local offices of the Forestry Commission without which the rosewood can not be transported from the forests are still issued illegally despite the prohibition of up to 3,000 Ghanaian cedis are paid to them. Others also mix rosewood logs cut illegally with other woods as they are transformed into squares, and then mistakenly declare them as a different species.

"Some have also hired well-connected staff who ensure the safe movement of rosewood logs from the logging site to Tema Harbor to escort rosewood. "These groups are linked to ministers and woodworkers and know who to pay on the road. Once the papers arrive at the port of Tema, the shipping agents help to obtain – or falsify – all the documents necessary for customs clearance, "said one of the traffickers to the EIA investigators.

The report also stated that there was legalization of illegally harvested rosewood. "When illegal logs are stopped and seized, they become the property of the Ghanaian government and fall under the control of the Forestry Commission. Thanks to escorts, traffickers can still release them by paying a "fine" of 1,500 to 1,700 and receive in return a means of transport and CITES permits, "the report says.

"Even when seized logs go through the official auction process, influential traffickers can still guarantee certain" auctioned "containers through an agreed" fine "and a pot-of-sale. – agreed, "adds the text.

Rosewood

"In one case, EIA investigators saw four containers of rosewood seized by the authorities in March and June 2019 at the famous Chinese shopping Helen Huang … One of Ghana's most influential traffickers has baderted to EIA's secret investigators that these same containers were about to be auctioned. "for him, thanks to his relationships," says the report.

Rosewood is an expensive wood species used primarily for the construction of furniture and musical instruments. It is on the brink of extinction in Ghana due to overexploitation.

The report recommends a thorough investigation into corruption and collusion within the government, the Forestry Commission and the Customs Administration. It also recommends suspending rosewood exports in the subregion until loopholes are eliminated.

The Forestry Commission told Joy News that it is still studying the report and that it will respond in the coming days to the issues raised.