During the months of September and October 2021, a total of 94 personnel of the Grading and Inspection Department (GID) of the Timber Industry Development Division (TIDD) of Forestry Commission (FC) were trained successfully in wood identification in Ghana. The personnel were trained on the use of the field identification manual of Ghanaian timbers published in 2020 by Rafael Arevalo, Emmanuel Ebanyenle, Alberta Asi Ebeheakey and Abban Kofi Bonsu, Ophilious Lambog, Richard Soares, and Alex C. Wiedenhoeft (available: https://www.fs.usda.gov/treesearch/pubs/60264). The training was organized in four training sessions in four FC-TIDD catchment areas of Ghana: Sunyani, Kumasi, Takoradi and Accra. Each training session lasted for 4 working days. In addition to the field manual, each trainee was equipped with utility knife, hand lens, macro / phone lens and a pack of blades for use in the field screening of 100 commercial timbers of Ghana, by means of macroscopic and physical identification features. It is envisaged that the wood identification training will aid the grading and inspection personnel of the Forestry Commission of Ghana to combat timber trafficking in a more scientific manner. The training is part of an ongoing international cooperative research between US Forest Service International Programs (USFS/IP), USDA, CSIR – Forestry Research Institute of Ghana (CSIR – FORIG), TIDD - Forestry Commission of Ghana and UNIDO.  


A group photo of Resource Persons (Emmanuel Ebanyenle, Ophilious Lambog, Abban Kofi Bonsu and Alberta Asi Ebeheakey), Grading and Inspection Personnel of FC –TIDD and the USFS/IP Representative (Destina Samani). Photo by the Public Relation Department of Forestry Commission, Accra, Ghana.