Ghana is a nation rich in natural resources and tropical diversity, with forests covering approximately one-fifth of the country’s total land area. To ensure that future generations of Ghanaians can enjoy the benefits of such a rich forest resource, Ghana has been enacting and enforcing laws intended to ensure that wood and wood-derived products are legally sourced. Compliance with and enforcement of these laws depend in part on the availability of technical or forensic expertise to validate claims of legality through the correct identification of timber during its extraction, processing, and grading. As part of a UNIDO-funded international partnership to improve timber tracking and timber forensics in the Ghanaian timber market, we present a wood identification manual for the most common commercial timbers of Ghana. This manual provides a field reference suitable for timber inspectors to conduct routine field screening of more than 100 timber species using macroscopic and physical identification features.
Citation: Arevalo, Rafael; Ebanyenle, Emmanuel; Ebeheakey, Alberta Asi; Bonsu, Kofi Abban; Lambog, Ophilious; Soares, Richard; Wiedenhoeft, Alex C. 2020. Field identification manual for Ghanaian timbers. FPL Gen Tech. Rep. FPL-GTR-277. Madison, WI: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Forest Products Laboratory. 130 p.
English