An analysis conducted in 2014 revealed that Ghana’s forestry industry, especially in the logging and forest sectors, contributed significantly to the country’s GDP, adding GH¢10.83 billion. This figure represented two percent of Ghana’s GDP for that year, highlighting the sector’s economic importance, according to a study done by the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) in partnership with the Forestry Commission (FC), the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), and the Warnel School of Forestry of the University of Georgia in the USA.
The goal of the study was to evaluate Ghana’s economic development’s relationship to the forestry sector. The study discovered that, despite the forestry sector’s major contribution, its economic impact is frequently overestimated because of things like a high degree of informality, poor reporting, and a dearth of disaggregated data. The forestry sector’s average GDP contribution to Ghana from 2014 to 2023 was 1.5%, indicating the sector’s continued economic significance as well as the difficulties it faces in realizing its full potential. Stakeholders from government, business, and civil society gathered in Accra for a two-day National Policy Dialogue to examine the final report on the “Economic Contribution and Sectoral Linkages of the Forest Sector to the National Economy of Ghana.”
The findings served as the main topic of discussion. The goal of the discussion was to increase public awareness of the sector’s contributions to the GDP and investigate potential policy changes that could strengthen their influence on the economy.Samuel Jinapor, the Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, emphasized the sector’s critical role in sustaining the nation’s economy and way of life in his keynote speech on September 3, 2023. The speech, which was read by Prof. Patrick Agbesubyale, the Chief Director of the Ministry, also underlined how critical it is to solve issues like illegal logging and deforestation in order to maintain the sector’s contributions.
In statements given on his behalf by Dr. Owusu Kagy, Head of Business and Industry at GSS, Government Statistician Professor Samuel K. Annim noted that the evaluation of the overall forest sector’s economic GDP contribution was hampered by the lack of data for activities related to forests.According to Prof. Annim, the analysis shows that the industry contributed to household livelihoods and had close linkages to agriculture, particularly the crop-growing industry.
According to John Allotey, Chief Executive Officer of the Forestry Commission, about 600 million people in the surrounding areas live in and directly depend on the forests.He continued by saying that micronutrients from the forest sector are needed for Ghana’s development of important food crops and tree crops, like cocoa. Future policy decisions, which aim to better integrate the forestry sector into Ghana’s broader economic planning and development objectives, are expected to be informed by the dialogue’s talks and report.
SOURCE https://dew360.net
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