About Forest Watch Ghana

Forest Watch Ghana (FWG) is the national campaign vehicle of over forty (40) Civil Society Organisations and individuals committed to the rights of forest users especially forest fringe communities. In 2002, non-governmental organisations in the forest sector in Ghana launched coordinated policy advocacy on the inequities of tenure, resource management and enterprise rights which undermine rural development and biodiversity. It was officially launched in February, 2004.

The membership of FWG has research, community development as well as policy advocacy expertise in the forest sector. The coalition has in-depth knowledge and deep appreciation of the sector, its crises and the governance solutions plausible. FWG is influential in national and international forest governance discourse.

Since its creation, Forest Watch Ghana has actively advocated policy reform in the forestry sector in Ghana.

The Coalition has grown to be a cohesive coalition which has consistently and increasingly campaigned on the issues of fair and equitable forest rights, access and benefits communities through policy and international initiatives such as the Voluntary Partnership Agreement.

Members can be found working with communities and marginalised forest stakeholders all over Ghana. Our members have diverse backgrounds including livelihoods support, participatory rights based development, forestry research, environmentalism, public media, socio-cultural and socio-economic rights advocacy, governance monitoring and public interest law.

Forest Watch Ghana is actively involved in Ghana’s FLEGT/VPA process, having led civil society to secure a seat during the negotiation of the agreement. FWG has also contributed significantly to Ghana’s Forest and Wildlife Policy (2012) ensuring that explicit provisions were made for securing the rights of communities, particularly those who depend directly on forest resources. Currently, the coalition is working with other civil society groups in Ghana to embark on civil society-led Independent Forest Monitoring.

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