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‘Build capacity of stakeholders to improve on planted teak trees

Participants at the 4th World Teak Conference have urged member states to make available superior planting material to private companies and local communities to improve on the quality of planted teak forests.

They also tasked the mother organisation, International Teak Information Network (TEAKNET) to facilitate capacity building for local communities and field workers in teak management techniques so as to intercrop teak with other profitable agricultural crops to promote the socio-economic development of the beneficiaries.

These were contained in a communique issued after the end of the three–day conference yesterday in Accra under the theme: Global Teak Market; Challenges and Opportunities for the Emerging and Developing Economies and attracted more than 270 participants from 28 countries.

The participants further stressed the need for the organisation to establish confidence in teak investments with small holders and farmers through the provision of realistic cost-benefit analyses, market price information and enabling government policies.

They urged TEAKNET to encourage smallholder growers to apply better cultural techniques, to use intercropping systems in order to bridge the initial years without earnings from forestry in order to make better use of marketing data and information.

They urged the board to establish platforms to link teak plantations with carbon credit markets and also commit more resources to research and development.

That they explained would advance the sustainable management of planted teak forests and also investigate in the quality of teak wood grown in plantations as compared to natural forests.

The Deputy Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Benito Owusu-Bio speaking at the closing ceremony expressed optimism that the outcome of the discussions would ensure fair prising to member states.

He commended the organisers and sponsors for a good job done and urged them to replicate the same at the next conference slated for India in 2024.

The 4th World Teak Conference (WTC2022) was organised by the Forestry Commission of Ghana, in collaboration with the TEAKNET, the International Union of Forest Research Organisations (IUFRO), and the International Tropical Timber Organisation (ITTO) and with the technical support of the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO). in Forest Reserves, Form Ghana andthe Forest Plantation Development Fund.

Teak makes only a small proportion of world timber production and trade has become a major component of the forest economies of many tropical countries as the planted forests have attracted large investments from the private sector in Africa, Asia and Latin Americas.

BY LAWRENCE VOMAFA-AKPALU

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