10 July 2014, EUFLEGT news - Ten organisations working on the VPA in Ghana met to present their projects and to coordinate their activities at a one-day meeting organised by the Ghana Forestry Commission and the EU delegation to Ghana in Accra on 29 April. Participating groups received funding from the EU, the EU FAO FLEGT Programme and the UK's Department for International Development (DFID) to support the VPA process in Ghana.

The practitioners shared details about their work and identified opportunities for collaboration on other projects. They also identified some gaps in support for the VPA process in Ghana, and identified mechanisms to sustain collaboration between projects.

Earlier efforts by Forest Watch Ghana and ClientEarth to convene regular meetings of a legal working group have paid off. Organisations working on legal reforms demonstrated good collaboration among their projects. Participants recommended they form a working group on the domestic timber market issues and another on communication about the Ghana-EU VPA to strengthen coordination in those areas. The Forestry Commission said they needed to update the groups working on  projects related to the timber legality assurance system on the developing system.

Source: www.euflegt.efi.int