Inadequate funding and high attrition rate are some of the challenges confronting research activities at the Forestry Research Institute of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR). The research institute has lost 36 workers to retirement and competition in the last three years.

The Forestry Research Institute is one of the 13 institutes of the CSIR with a mission to conduct forest and forest products research for social, economic and environmental benefits of society.

The institute also undertakes demand-driven research, build capacity and promote the application of technologies for sustainable management of forest resources for the benefit of society.

“Poor conditions of service resulting in high staff attrition rate and also because of our inability to replace staff over the years, it has been a major constraint; we are losing some specialist areas and we are taking steps to ensure at least we have the minimum critical staff’, said Dr D.O Ofori, Director of Forestry Research Institute.

He raised the concerns whilst highlighting the contributions of the institute to national economic growth during the annual review and planning session of the institute. According to him, the institute’s technologies or research work are not on the shelves because its research methodologies are participatory on field with industry players and on-station with cutting edge science technology and innovation approaches.

“We do not sit here and decide on what to do, we go down there and get the views of industry players and other key players along the value chain to come up with the problems and issues that we research on and so our research is done on-station,” he explained.

Over the years, the institute has conducted research in forestry related and timber sectors to ensure sustainable forest management. However, most of the research projects currently underway at the institute are funded by donor agencies with minimum contribution from the government of Ghana.