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The continent is also projected to see the fastest rate of urban growth anywhere in the world: by 2050 Africa’s cities will be home to an additional 950 million people.
As part of the deal struck in 2019, the UN backed Central African Forest Initiative has handed over $17 million to the country – the first tranche of $150 million.
Africa’s forests account for about 21% of its total land area, roughly equal to those of North America or Asia, and four times bigger than the EU.
The combined result is that not only does Africa retain less than 10% of the value of its timber, but also the industry creates less than 10% of the potential jobs it could create if a greater share of finished and semi-finished products were produced and exported.
For instance, 353 million m3 of wood could be freed up for other purposes if the demand for wood energy was reduced by 50% through increased efficiency and the deployment of other renewable energy sources.
It would also help to store carbon in buildings for decades and significantly reduce emissions by substituting the high carbon intensity of concrete and steel.
The Code had mandated a gradual transition towards more in-country processing, so that by 2009 at least 60% of logs were to have been processed in this way.
With a vision to multiply the number of forest jobs and the sector’s economic output by a factor of 10, it created a special economic zone specializing in timber processing just 20km outside the capital, Libreville.
Today almost 100 timber plants are transforming waste hardwood into activated charcoal, while softer wood waste goes to the region’s first ever particle board factory.
It’s no wonder that in 2020 the system was hailed by the Financial Times as the best “special economic zone” for timber products throughout Africa.