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Ghana: Targeted trainings allow small and medium forest enterprises (SMFEs) to comply with national legality requirements

FAO-EU FLEGT Programme: Success story










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    Book (series)
    Enabling micro, small and medium-sized enterprises to participate in legal timber production and trade
    Transformational changes generated by the FAO-EU FLEGT Programme
    2022
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    Micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) play a critical role in meeting the growing demand for forest products worldwide, with potential to contribute to responsible supply chains that combat illegal logging while promoting economic growth. However, a growing number of countries are adopting demand-side control measures that require proof of legality of forest products. Forest sector MSMEs will require significant support – and changes to the types of support they receive – to fulfil and even take advantage of these new and emerging market requirements and related opportunities. This paper draws from 110 initiatives in 20 countries supported by the FAO-EU Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) Programme between 2016 and 2022 and seeks to provide examples of how to support forest sector MSMEs cost-effectively and at scale to integrate them into domestic and international legal timber value chains. The initiatives discussed in this paper offer a wealth of experience and knowledge, which can be capitalized upon to boost forest-dependent livelihoods and promote both social equity and sustainability within timber supply chains. Implementing a portfolio of these strategies in a comprehensive support package generate “transformational changes” that help realize the potential of MSMEs to move past traditional business-as-usual modes of operation towards sustainable growth and more inclusive, resilient economies.
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    Brochure, flyer, fact-sheet
    Cameroon: Boosting small timber operators’ market access through improved legal compliance
    FAO-EU FLEGT Programme - Success story
    2021
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    Within the framework of the EU’s Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) Action Plan, the FAO-EU FLEGT Programme partnered with Action for Sustainable Development (ASD) to increase legal compliance and the participation of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in Cameroon’s domestic legal timber market. Through combined efforts, ASD strengthened the capacity of small timber operators to comply with regulations and facilitated the creation of legal and sustainable market linkages.
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    Policy brief
    Supporting forest sector micro, small and medium enterprises at scale
    The experience of the FAO-EU FLEGT Programme
    2021
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    Between 2016-2021, the FAO-EU FLEGT Programme funded 96 MSME support projects in 20 countries globally. These projects reached 3,300 MSMEs in total, but the 41 projects with a specific capacity building focus were able to train an average of 71 MSMEs per project. Although these projects were instrumental in helping beneficiaries to operate legally and access new markets, the number of MSMEs reached remains small compared to the sheer number that require support in tropical timber-producing countries. The current scale of engagement is not entirely limited by investment and resources, but also by several challenges that make it inherently difficult to effectively engage MSMEs. As part of a Programme-wide global experience capitalisation process, staff members conducted interviews with local partners and, where possible, end beneficiaries of the projects. Local partners were asked to reflect on strategies that could have allowed them to reach more MSMEs in their projects, and on the broader enabling conditions that would need to be put in place to enable MSMEs to participate in legal timber production at a larger scale. Through these interviews, and the collective experience of these MSME support projects, the Programme has identified strategies for overcoming these challenges and that could be adopted by future interventions to reach tens of thousands – rather than hundreds – of MSMEs. These strategies are discussed in the paper.

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