The Right to Access Information in the Forest sector

The document examines the legal protections for access to information in Ghana's forest sector, noting a gap between constitutional rights and operational enforcement. It details specific obligations of the Forestry Commission and the goals of the 2012 Forest and Wildlife Policy, while reviewing international instruments like the African Charter and the EU-Ghana VPA.

• The 1992 Constitution of Ghana establishes access to information as a fundamental human right, though the document notes that the Constitutional Review Commission has recommended the passage of an updated Access to Information bill to avoid excessive 'claw back clauses'.
• Specific national laws impose transparency obligations on the Forestry Commission, including the requirement to account to landowners for expenditures made from deducted forest reserve revenue and the submission of a yearly report to the Minister of Lands and Natural Resources.
• The Forestry Commission is legally required to publish notifications when it intends to create a new forest reserve or identify new areas for off-reserve timber exploitation, though for on-reserve timber rights, it only needs to inform local people.
• The 2012 Forest and Wildlife Policy identifies transparency as a sector challenge, describing the current framework for redistributing natural resource revenues as 'ambiguous, inequitable and lacks transparency'.
• Ghana has ratified several international instruments that support access to information, including the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights (1989) and the African Union Convention on Preventing and Combating Corruption (2007), although the latter is described as having 'vague' wording.
• The Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA) between the EU and Ghana lacks a 'published information' annex found in other EU VPAs, but it requires the Joint Monitoring and Review Mechanism (JMRM) to ensure transparency through reports and aide memoires.
• Despite constitutional and international recognitions, the document concludes that very few provisions make the right to information operational and enforceable in practice, primarily due to the absence of a general access to information bill.

APA

ClientEarth (2013). The Right to Access Information in the Forest sector. https://www.clientearth.org/media/2hxpcwdg/2013-11-01-the-right-to-access-information-in-the-forest-sector-in-ghana-ce-en.pdf

Chicago

ClientEarth. The Right to Access Information in the Forest sector. 2013. https://www.clientearth.org/media/2hxpcwdg/2013-11-01-the-right-to-access-information-in-the-forest-sector-in-ghana-ce-en.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=ClientEarth |title=The Right to Access Information in the Forest sector |date=November 2013 |url=https://www.clientearth.org/media/2hxpcwdg/2013-11-01-the-right-to-access-information-in-the-forest-sector-in-ghana-ce-en.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{clientearth2013right, author = {{ClientEarth}}, title = {{The Right to Access Information in the Forest sector}}, institution = {ClientEarth}, year = {2013}, month = nov, url = {https://www.clientearth.org/media/2hxpcwdg/2013-11-01-the-right-to-access-information-in-the-forest-sector-in-ghana-ce-en.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }