When are social responsibility agreements a legal requirement?

The document analyzes the legal necessity of social responsibility agreements (SRAs) across various logging permits in Ghana, concluding that all permit types recognized as legal sources of timber under the EU-Ghana VPA require SRAs.

• All Timber Utilisation Contracts (TUCs), including those for natural forests, forest plantations, and replacement TUCs, legally require a Social Responsibility Agreement (SRA).
• SRAs for TUCs must be concluded before the right is granted, and the contractor is obligated to provide community benefits at a cost of 5% of the stumpage fee value of harvested timber.
• Failure to implement an SRA constitutes a breach of the TUC terms and conditions, which may result in the suspension or termination of the contract.
• Underwater logging rights are deemed to require SRAs because Parliament approved previous agreements on the condition that they be conducted like land-based TUCs.
• Salvage permits require SRAs only if the Forestry Commission specifies this in the permit terms, which typically occurs when the permits are commercial in nature.
• Special permits and Timber Utilisation Permits (TUPs) are not recognized as legal sources of wood under the VPA, meaning timber harvested under them cannot be exported or sold domestically once the Ghana Legality Assurance System (G-LAS) is operational.
• Under the EU-Ghana VPA and the resulting Ghana Legality Assurance System (G-LAS), full compliance with relevant SRAs is a mandatory criterion for timber to be defined as legal for domestic and export markets.

APA

Weyns, J., & Akapame, C. K. (2015). When are social responsibility agreements a legal requirement? ClientEarth. https://www.clientearth.org/media/raxkfrbw/2015-06-01-when-are-social-responsibility-agreements-a-legal-requirement-coll-en.pdf

Chicago

Weyns, Jozef, and Clement Kojo Akapame. When are social responsibility agreements a legal requirement? ClientEarth, 2015. https://www.clientearth.org/media/raxkfrbw/2015-06-01-when-are-social-responsibility-agreements-a-legal-requirement-coll-en.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Weyns |first1=Jozef |last2=Akapame |first2=Clement Kojo |title=When are social responsibility agreements a legal requirement? |publisher=ClientEarth |date=May 2015 |url=https://www.clientearth.org/media/raxkfrbw/2015-06-01-when-are-social-responsibility-agreements-a-legal-requirement-coll-en.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{weyns2015when, author = {Weyns, Jozef and Akapame, Clement Kojo}, title = {{When are social responsibility agreements a legal requirement?}}, institution = {ClientEarth}, year = {2015}, month = may, url = {https://www.clientearth.org/media/raxkfrbw/2015-06-01-when-are-social-responsibility-agreements-a-legal-requirement-coll-en.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }