The forest sector is not currently contributing the revenues that it should, either to government or rural communities. Further improvements to transparency are necessary as part of broader efforts to strengthen accountability.
This paper sought to explore two issues:
- Whether the efficiency of forest revenue collection has improved over the last decade, and the factors that have contributed to this; and
- The extent to which revenues are being disbursed to subnational governments and to forest communities.
The broad picture is one of partial improvement, with much more progress required in all three countries. In Ghana, revenue collection is broadly efficient, the exception being for timber rights fees (although there is now a resolution to this). There has been progress on benefit-sharing with processes for establishing agreements between companies and communities, but there is little data on the extent to which communities are receiving revenues. Similarly, there is limited information on the disbursement of revenues to traditional authorities and local government. In Liberia, collection of revenues remains poor, and the issue of historical arrears has also not been addressed. Some progress has been seen with respect to benefit-sharing, with several payments having been made to communities, but far more is still owed. In the Congo, reforms instigated under the VPA are at an earlier stage and these have not yet translated into improved revenue collection or disbursement.
Enhanced transparency has been an important underlying factor in progress on collection and disbursement of forest revenues. The investments made in timber tracking systems in Ghana and Liberia have improved the quality and accessibility of data, while the EITI process has also increased the availability of data in Liberia and the Congo. This has been a factor in helping to drive reforms within these countries, raising awareness of the scale of the issues and bringing these to the fore of political discussions both at the international and national levels.
Internationally, these issues have been discussed in the bilateral meetings on VPA implementation between the EU and each of the three countries covered in this paper. In the case of the Congo, for example, increased understanding of the scale of financial losses from the sector is reported to have helped increase the engagement of the Ministry of Finance in the VPA process. In both Ghana and Liberia, the issue of tax arrears has been discussed in VPA bilateral meetings, helping to keep it in the spotlight – for example, the Liberian government described the level of arrears as ‘astonishing’ in the 2020 committee meeting.
At the national level, civil society has also been making use of available data to bring about change. In Ghana, improved transparency of forest sector data has helped civil society to advocate reforms to the benefit-sharing system, and it has enabled communities to negotiate fairer agreements with companies. Similarly, in Liberia, the availability of such data has raised awareness of the scale of the revenues that are owed to communities and has been used by civil society and communities to campaign for reforms.
However, in spite of these improvements in transparency, for all three countries there remain many gaps. For example, while increasing amounts of data are being published or made available, these are not always complete or accurate, with inconsistencies between reports and gaps for certain time periods. Where available, data are often in various formats or held by different government departments, requiring considerable effort to compile and analyse.
In Ghana, there is a large body of data available, but much of this needs to be accessed on request and from different parts of government. In Liberia, much data is also now available but access is not reliable, and there are inconsistencies in the data. The availability and quality of data is weakest in the Congo. Here, most data are not automatically published and can only be accessed through direct requests to officials.
Further improving transparency is of critical importance to support ongoing efforts to strengthen accountability of both government and the forest sector. In particular, improvements are needed in relation to the disbursement of revenues for rural development, both to subnational governments and to communities. Civil society has been actively engaged on this latter question, with those in Ghana and Liberia developing databases to enable monitoring.
This work, as well as broader efforts to enhance transparency, warrant further support, as it is clear from the preliminary research reported on here, that the forest sector is not yet contributing the revenues that it should, either to government or rural communities. As a result, the forest sector is not fulfilling its potential to support sustainable development.
