Forest Products, Livelihoods and Conservation

34 Dental hygiene and livelihoods: a case of chewing sticks in Ghana

Because of the low level of transformation the product goes through from

raw material to finished product, the product cannot be adulterated and it is

always in prime condition, except of course when the desired species are not

used. Also because of the little transformation, there is no vertical integration.

Most of the traders belong to associations that were established in the early

1990s. The main objective of these associations is to regulate the activities of

the business and to help one another in times of crises or need. As in the case of

the processors, the traders’ association is an economic and a sociocultural one.

While there are no social, technical or regulatory barriers to second level traders

joining any of the associations, there are economic barriers, because one needs

some capital before becoming a second order trader.

While there are no corrupt practices financially, there is currently a trend of

some traders using alternative species for the genuine Garcinia spp., which are

becoming increasingly scarce. Nevertheless there are no national or local

government regulations that directly relate to the chewing stick trade apart

from the payment of taxes on the produce. There is also no incentive or direct

investment from the government. In the absence of government support, the

nongovernmental organisation Sinapi Aba has recently stepped in to offer support

in the form of soft loans to traders and processors to enable them to increase

their working capital. This sponsorship is expected to continue if traders continue

to repay their loans.

POLICY ENVIRONMENT

Legislative framework

The Forest Services Division of the Forestry Commission, which is the

governmental agency responsible for the management of forest resources, has

regulations on harvesting of chewing sticks. These regulations however apply

only to harvesting in designated Forest Reserves. Here the gatherer must first

obtain a permit to enter the reserve. Gatherers who enter Forest Reserves

without permit are arrested and at times prosecuted; their logs are seized. The

permit system is meant to check excessive exploitation and illegal harvesting,

but it has failed to achieve these objectives because the Forest Service does not

ensure strict monitoring of harvesting operations. This laxness has led to abuses

by both gatherers and Forest Commission staff, which has culminated in depletion

of the resource.

After gathering, a specific levy is put on each tree or log before the logs are

trucked to the urban market. These taxes or levies are only meant to generate

revenue to the national and local governments (the latter called District Assemblies)

and are not meant in any way to influence the raw material production.

Traditional Laws

Traditional laws governing chewing sticks gathering and trade are informal and

differ from place to place. Usually these customary regulations cover trees

found in off-forest reserves. Here the gatherer pays a token fee together with

drinks before he enters the land. Sanctions are instituted against people who

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