ABSTRACT
Like most sub-Saharan African countries, Ghana adopted a structural adjustment programme (SAP) – a set of free market-based economic policies dubbed the Economic Recovery Programme (ERP) – in April 1983 under the auspices of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). These reforms aimed to resuscitate the country’s ailing economy and to foster development in an ‘accelerated’ and ‘sustainable’ manner (World Bank, 1981, 1989). Along with the general economy, the decade prior to the adjustment programme (1973 to 1982) saw a rapid decline in timber exports comprising logs, lumber and other wood products such as veneer and plywood, reaching its lowest ebb in 1982, the year prior to structural adjustment. As a watershed in Ghana’s timber trade, the adoption of the ERP in early 1983 engendered a dramatic upturn and expansion in the volume of Ghana’s timber exports which lasted for the next decade and beyond (1983 to 2006), as shown in Figure 13.1. Volume of lumber and other wood products exported, 1973–2006 https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9781849774512/794cec68-ad9c-4d7d-ba4b-10f941b3b022/content/fig13_1_B.tif" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/> Source: CBS (1983, 1984, 1985); TEDB (1990); FPIB (1991); Coleman and Amankwah (1998); TIDD Wood Export Reports (2002–2006)
