Offering a Unique Resource
Supply and Demand Issues Create Opportunity
Timber is the Ghana’s third largest export after gold and cocoa. The industry makes a significant contribution to employment, infrastructure and revenue, particularly in rural areas. More than two thirds of timber exports go to Europe with most of the remainder shipping to Asia and the United States.
Odum wood sample from one of the many valuable species of tropical hardwood trees submerged by the Volta Lake.
view slide show of hardwood samples.
While tropical log and rough-sawn lumber imports into Europe have declined sharply in recent years, African value-added, hardwood imports have increased. In addition, with its high environmental standards and eco-conscious consumers, the European market presents excellent opportunities for environmentally-friendly, tropical hardwoods.
Furthermore, European Union demand for legal and sustainable wood products is outstripping supply, a situation that is not likely to abate anytime soon.
A successful CSR Developments project in Ghana will make it a world leader in underwater salvage and the supply of eco-friendly, tropical hardwood. It will also bring the country to the forefront of timber extraction and processing.
Certification and Marketing
CSR Developments is currently working on global strategies that will allow it to successfully market the unique timber products from its Volta Lake operations on Ghanaian and world markets. This process will leverage the company’s triple bottom line approach into an attractive offering across the globe.
By cutting dead, rather than living trees, the project will also help Ghana’s efforts to reduce deforestation and illegal logging. Relationships with potential marketing and sales partners are being explored to take advantage of the unique environmental attributes of the wood.
CSR Developments is applying for certification of its products under the SmartWood Rediscovered Wood standard, which is run by Rainforest Alliance, a NGO that works to improve forest management in 60 countries.
The certification system would track every log the company salvages and processes into lumber products, from the lake to the port of Tema and beyond, linking responsible production to responsible consumption. Such certification would provide third party audits of the environmental and social practices applied by CSR Developments and provide access to worldwide green product markets.
