About FSD

FOREST SERVICES DIVISION (FSD)

ORGANIZATIONAL OVERVIEW

The Forest Services Division (FSD) is one (1) of the three (3) divisions of the Forestry Commission with the mandate to protect, sustainably manage and develop the forest resources of the country in trust for the owners.

The Division is headed by an Executive Director (ED) and has two (2) main operational departments, namely the Natural Forests and Plantation Forests which are headed by Directors. The functional departments that support the Executive Director’s Secretariat and these directorates mentioned above are the Human Resource, Finance, Business Planning and the General Services.

 CORE FUNCTIONS OF FSD

• Protect, manage and develop forest resources in the national interest and for the benefit of the owners.
• Establish planning systems for protection, harvesting and development of forest reserves in a sustainable manner.
• Provide management and technical services with regard to matters of protection, management and development of forest reserves.
• Promote public awareness, understanding and support for forest resources conservation.
• Regulate the harvesting of forest resources.
• Facilitate the restoration of degraded landscapes in collaboration with private sector, community and civil society using different strategies.  
• Undertake the development of forest plantations for the restoration of degraded areas, the expansion of the countries forest cover and increase in the production of industrial timber.
• Assists the private sector and other bodies in the implementation of forest policies.

OPERATIONS DEPARTMENT (NATURAL FOREST)

The responsibility of the Natural Forest Department is mainly to secure the integrity of the Forest reserves and regulate timber harvesting operations.

THE CORE FUNCTIONS OF THE OPERATIONS DEPARTMENT ARE AS FOLLOWS;

1. To maintain the integrity of Forest Reserves through the cleaning and maintenance of Forest Reserve boundaries, patrolling to ward off encroachers and replacement of missing, broken and defaced boundary pillars.
2. The coordination of policies related to the conservation, management, and development of forest.
3. Develop and implement Forest Management Plans for Forest Reserves.
4. Engage stakeholders/forest fringe communities in Forest Management and protection.
5. Preparation, Supervision and monitoring of Stock Survey/Pre-felling, Tree Identification Forms, and Log Measurement Conveyance Certificates
6. Preparation of stock maps depicting the stock survey data.
7. Ensure the payment of Social Responsibility Agreement. ie. 5% of annual royalty accruing from the operations of the Timber Rights Holder.

OPERATIONS DEPARTMENT (FOREST PLANTATIONS)

Forest Development

The Plantations Department of the Forest Services Division has responsibility for coordinating the development, management and regulation of forest plantations in Ghana. In addition, the department coordinates forest landscape restoration interventions including enrichment planting and trees-on-farm (Farm Forestry) across the country.

The core functions of the Plantations Department are as follows:

1. Develop and implement strategic and operational plans for restoration of degraded and deforested landscapes.
2. Coordinate landscape restoration projects and programs (i.e. through forest plantations development, enrichment planting and incorporation of trees on farms). Presently, the Plantations Department is coordinating the implementation of the Forest Investment Programme (FIP) and the Youth in Afforestation Project (YAP) and field implementation of Green Ghana Day.
3. Regulates the maintenance, management and harvesting of forest plantations.
4. Facilitates coppice management of harvested teak plantations.
5. Promotes investment in commercial forest plantations.
6. Coordinates and supervises the disbursement of revenue from the harvest  of forest plantation timber to various stakeholders (i.e. Land Owners, Communities and Modified Taungya System (MTS) Farmers);
7. Facilitates the collection and disbursement of Ground Rent from private Forest Plantation Developers within forest reserves to the respective Land owners and other stakeholders through the Office of the Administrator of Stool Lands (OASL).

HUMAN RESOURCES DEPARTMENT

The Human Resources department exists to encourage, support and monitor the effective and efficient management of the Division’s most valuable resource that is the people it employs.

The primary responsibility of the HR Department of FSD is to attract, develop and retain a skilled and well-motivated work force. It also ensures that the right quantity and quality of personnel are secured and retained. The department also strives to position FSD as an employer of choice by promoting good and sound employment practice and complying with the Labour Act 651. 

The Department plays a key role in supporting the strategic objectives and priorities of the Division through;

Organization Development

Facilitating change management and organizational structure reviews

Recruitment and Selection

Deploying accurate and merit based selection methods while also providing coordination and administration for the recruitment and selection process

Total rewards and compensation

Improving the rewards management by ensuring that employee pay, benefits and other entitled rewards are paid and in line with performance and productivity

Employee Relations and Communications

Establishing an equal opportunity culture and developing a partnership approach to management relations with equal commitment from all sides

Occupational Health and Safety Management

Acting as the custodian for health and safety on behalf of the Executive Director to ensure the provision of a safe working environment.

FINANCE DEPARTMENT

The Finance Department has the primary responsibility of mobilizing revenue from diversified sources to meet financial commitments of the division as well as provide adequate reserves to replace our depreciating assets. 

The Department also;

1. Streamline the revenue generation processes and reporting systems at the Regional and District levels.
2. Invest to capture revenue from both timber and non-timber forest products especially eco-tourism.

GENERAL SERVICES DEPARTMENT

The General Services department oversees the Estate, Transport, and Stores sections of the Division.  A review of the three sections is presented below:

Estate Management Section

The estate section of FSD is also responsible for the landed properties or fixed assets such as offices, bungalows, quarters, and movable assets across the country as well as the management of civil works. 

Transport Management Section

The Transport section is responsible for the management of FSD’s fleet of vehicles.

Stores Management Section
The Stores section is responsible for all procurement and supplies in FSD.  This involves the management of stores items needed for the delivery of services. 

BUSINESS PLANNING DEPARTMENT

The Business Planning Department is tasked to monitor and evaluate the performance of all the Departments of the Division, using a performance audit/monitoring system.

FSD OFFICES AND THEIR LOCATIONS

CONTACT ADDRESS:

The Executive Director, Forest Services Division

P.O. Box 527, Accra –Ghana

Tel: 233 (0) 28 91 20035

Email: info.fsd@fcghana.org