Between 1900 and 1990, Ghana’s forest area was reduced from 8 million hectares to just 1.6 million. Today, official estimates suggest that logging is going on at an annual rate of over 3.7 million cubic metres – nearly four times the sustainable rate.

It is estimated that two thirds of the timber is harvested illegally, both by industrial logging companies and small chainsaw operators. While chainsaw logging for commercial purposes was declared illegal in 1998, at least 50,000 people are still involved in the felling and processing of chainsaw lumber.

Corruption is rampant, with local authorities requesting bribes to close their eyes on illegal logging and trading operations. One timber trader claimed that a two-hour journey from the logging site to the market cost him, in bribes, two thirds of the market value of his load.

Licensed sawmills are supposed to supply 20 percent of their timber to domestic markets, but their prices are much higher than those of chainsaw lumber. The high demand for cheap wood continues to drive the chainsaw logging industry, and sawmills - that make more profit exporting their product - don’t always respect their domestic obligations.

In some local markets, the percentage of “legal”, sawmill lumber available doesn’t reach five percent. In all markets countrywide, the overwhelming majority of the wood products on sale come from chainsaw logging.