This book presents an analysis of the development of Ghana's timber industry and forestry sector from pre-colonial times up until the present, with emphasis on the period around Ghana's Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) in 1983. The main argument of the book is that colonial policies and practices paved the way for Ghana's integration into the global capitalist system and resulted in a distorted forest sector which favoured foreign corporate access to Ghana's forest resources and shaped the timber sector towards export of timber logs and primary processed timber (lumber). Post-independence governments were unable to effectively escape the colonial legacy, and the SAP was an inevitable outcome of a collapse of the Ghanaian economy in the late 1970s. Through the SAP loans were extended to selected timber firms to upgrade and expand timber extraction and processing equipment. These initiatives resulted in expansion of harvest and timber exports and inflow of foreign currency. However, in the analysis of the author, the SAP purposely reinforced the dependency of the Ghanaian timber sector on international capitalist interests. It did not transform the timber sector towards tertiary processing with multiple forward linkages in the economy but remained focused on primary processing and export of cheap logs and lumber to the western markets and eventually led to higher levels of national debt, serious environmental degradation and deforestation, and little benefits for rural livelihoods.

It follows that J. Henry Owusu's analysis is framed within the ‘dependency school’ in the tradition of André Gunder Frank, Fernando H. Cardoso, Enzo Faletto and Samir Amin. Yet, in our view, the analysis suffers from a lack of empirical grounding and an underestimation of domestic political powers and interests by seeing domestic politics as merely a product of external forces. Very little evidence is presented on the forest policy choices under the post-independence governments of the 1960s and 1970s. For example, how were timber concessions distributed during this period? And what explains the emergence of timber rights holders of Lebanese origin in Ghana? Moreover, we would have liked to see a more detailed description and analysis of the choices and decisions – both by WB, IMF and bilateral donors and domestic decision-makers in Ghana on the SAP. For example, how were timber firms selected for loans and grants and how were the conditions of these negotiated? Generally, the author draws on secondary sources, many of NGO nature, and the book only to a limited extent builds on the author's own primary data collection and analysis. Moreover, we are puzzled by the lack of reference to key journal articles, books, and reports on the forestry sector in Ghana that could have qualified the arguments presented in the book.

The author repeatedly emphasises the concern of the WB and IMF of ‘getting the prices right’ as part of the SAP. Yet, this ignores the fact that the increases implemented as part of the SAP were quickly eroded by inflation, and that competitive bidding for timber rights, stated as a policy goal of the 1994 Ghana Forest and Wildlife Policy, were 10 years under way, and have never been successfully implemented (Hansen & Lund Reference Hansen and Lund2011). This again points towards a political timber economy that cannot solely be explained through core-periphery theory.

The book shows how the SAP resulted in a sharp increase in annual timber harvest as compared with the immediate pre-SAP years. However, this increase merely restored the timber harvest to the level of harvest in the period 1960–1975 (Treue Reference Treue2001). This is important when considering the impact of the SAP on levels of ‘desperate deforestation’ as the author puts it. While we agree to the author's critique of the wisdom of expanding the timber sector's processing capacity to five times the sustainable harvest level as part of the SAP, the link to deforestation is spurious. In our view, the author underestimates the role of agriculture, notably expansion of cocoa, in deforestation, as well as that of charcoal production. Thus, while timber harvest certainly has had a role in deforestation in Ghana; it probably plays a larger role in forest degradation than in outright deforestation, and already had that role prior to the SAP.

Notwithstanding our points of critique, we believe that Owusu's book contributes to our understanding of the dynamics, processes and relations pertaining to tropical forests and timber sectors in Africa and, particularly, raises our awareness of the impact of SAPs and the role of international economic processes and powers in contributing to shaping forest policy choices.