Ghana and The European Union on Wednesday signed a groundbreaking trade agreement that would stop imports of illegal timber into Europe from Ghana. The deal will offer European consumers a credible guarantee that Ghanaian timber products have been obtained in a manner that protects Ghana's remaining forests and benefits local forest communities. Ghana’s Minister of Lands, Forestry and Mines, Esther Obeng Dapaah and Mr Stefano Manservisi, Director-General for Development of the European Union, signed the agreement. The deal which was announced in Accra, during the world's Third High-Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness, is the first of a series of legally-binding bilateral agreements, known as Voluntary Partnership Agreements (VPAs), envisioned between the EU and individual timber-producing countries. VPAs are part of a package of measures set out in the European Commission's 2003 Action Plan on Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT), which recognises the EU's responsibility to tackle its own demand for high-risk imported wood. Ghana thus becomes the first country to have concluded a VPA with the European Community. In Africa Cameroon and the Republic of Congo (Brazzaville) are currently negotiating VPAS with the EU. Europe imports more than half the timber Ghana produces for export, from a total forest sector worth an estimated 400 million dollars a year. Timber ranks only behind gold, tourism and cocoa in export earnings for Ghana. Illegal logging has been responsible for rampant deforestation in the West African nation, and estimates gathered by the World Bank suggest that around 60 percent of logging has been illegal in recent years. Globally, the World Bank has estimated that illegal logging and uncollected timber taxes cause losses in assets and revenue in excess of 15 billion dollars annually, more than six times the total official development assistance to the sustainable management of forests. The deal brings to a close a 21-month process and commits Ghana to developing transparent systems for collecting timber taxes and ensuring legal compliance in their forest sector; and the EU to establishing border measures to exclude unlicensed Ghanaian wood from the European market. The two parties have also agreed on the pillars of a FLEGT licensing scheme that includes definition of legal timber, system of verification of legality and timber tracking system, licensing system and independent monitoring. The EU expects that 'FLEGT timber,' as the licensed products are currently known, will begin to be exported by partner countries from late 2009. Commenting on the deal Mrs Dappah said: “We are committed to delivering on these provisions in the agreement.” However, she said, resource constraints could make implementation difficult and called on donors to make good their pledges on timely basis to ensure a good outcome in delivery on the agreement. Mrs Dappah said the two-year long process in engaging with the EU had been a good-learning experience and lauded the contributions of the various stakeholders in the internal consultative processes in enhancing good governance. “The deal will send signals to other countries to come on board to ensure that consumption contribute to economic growth,” Mr Manservisi said. Source: GNA