chainsaw milling and lumber trade in west africa project

OUTPUT 1A decision support system that indicates where and when in the West Africa chainsawlogging and chainsaw milling are appropriately (socially, economically and ecologically)developed;Activity 1.2 is to have a timeframe of two weeks, within which the socio-economists andecologists are to evaluate the social, economic and ecological impacts of chainsaw logging andmilling as compared to traditional industrial logging and fixed-saw milling. The lawyer andpolicy expert in the team they should also examine the legal, policy and regulatory provisionsthat govern access to legal and illegal timber and the constraints to their implementation.For activity 1.3 the resource economist should ensure that quantitative description of thenational annual lumber production by the chainsaw outfits and traditional sawmills areadequately provided for Cameroon and Ghana.A three member working team developed a structured questionnaire for this activity (SeeAnnex1-4). University of Aberdeen is to review the experimental design and protocols for dataanalysis. As part of the activity a frame work for data analysis and interpretation should bedeveloped within a week by the University of Aberdeen. To ensure the completion of theactivity on schedule regular working meetings are to be convened by team leaders in eachcountry to review information collated. The annotated bibliography should help to understandthe main factors influencing the social, economic and ecological sustainability of chainsawtimber production in the various countries.This activity will be concluded with discussion seminars to be held at the three respectivehome countries. This is expected to come off in the second week of January 2006 after a focusgroup discussion to be held in December, 2005.OUTPUT 2An assessment of the structure and characteristics of corruption that undermines theregularization of chainsaw timber production and equitable distribution of benefits andidentification of anti-corruption tools that could be used to control timber harvest andchainsaw millingWith a competent activity leader, the structure of corruption in the forestry sector generally isto be described. This should be done first through the identification of all potentialstakeholders.To facilitate the characterization of corruption and selection of anti-corruption tools for theforestry sector, certain key institutions like Ghana Institute of Manpower and Administration(GIMPA), Transparency International (TI), are to be brought on board.