By Ayo Onikoyi

Dr. Joshua Temiofe Uzu, an expert in forestry and natural resources, has identified sustainable forestry as a viable tool for fast-tracking Nigeria’s economic development whilst ensuring the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.

Dr. Uzu has a PhD in Forestry and Natural Resources with a focus on forest business from the University of Georgia and a master’s degree in Natural Resources Conservation from the University of Lagos. As an expert in the application of economic contribution analysis and computable general equilibrium studies in relations to the forestry sector, Dr. Uzu understands how the forestry sector interacts with other sectors of the national economy and its potential to impact households, industries, and all relevant agents within the economy. As part of his doctoral dissertation, Dr. Uzu quantified the economic contribution of the forest sector to Ghana’s national economy and identified the forest sector’s economic linkages with other sectors of the Ghanaian economy. He also utilized computable general equilibrium modeling to estimate the impact of the African Continental Free Trade Area Agreement on the global forest sector and has now become a leading specialist in this respect.

In his recent communique, Dr. Uzu emphasized the necessity to create the right business environment that will attract significant forestry investments into Nigeria. “Today, Nigeria is a net importer of processed forest products, and most of the country’s demand for unprocessed forest products are met unsustainably from the nation’s natural forests. With our exponentially growing population and increasing demand for forestry products, we can expect an ever-increasing pressure on our meagre foreign exchange reserves to import the deficit of our processed forest products’ needs and an even further depletion of our natural forests with its adverse impact on climate, unless we take specific measures to prevent this. Sustainably planted forests are a possible solution to this challenge; however, they are incredibly capital intensive and thus mostly bankrolled by institutional investors such as private equity funds and timberland investment management organizations, development finance institutions, and high net worth individuals, with government providing the enabling environment. By taking the right actions now such as – property rights protection, route to market investment, road infrastructure development, combatting illegal logging which undercuts true price, ensuring consistency of national policies, strengthening local legal institutions, enhancing security and limiting political country risks – we can begin to attract significant foreign capital to invest in the sustainable production of timber, whose dividends we will reap in the decades and centuries to come. Due to its significant connection with rural communities, investments in sustainable planted forests and their related downstream processing facilities, will positively enhance the socio-economic welfare of the most vulnerable members of our societies. Also, local institutional investors such as pension fund administrators, can also take advantage of the real asset nature of forestry and its long-term approach to hedge against inflation at a modest rate of return.”

Dr. Uzu’s work show in real USD terms the potential of the forestry sector to contribute significantly to the economy of a nation and underscore the likely benefits that a continental trade agreement can have on the forest product sector, and on global welfare. As an expert that has worked for a timberland investment management organization, providing support to Portfolio Managers overseeing timberland assets with a market value of over $4.9 billion dollars, Dr. Uzu understands the concerns of forestry institutional investors and the key drivers of their investment decisions. His deep knowledge and expertise in forestry investments can thus greatly benefit any nation seeking to enhance the contribution of her forestry sector. According to a 2024 report by Criterion Africa Partners and Gatsby Africa, excluding investments in South Africa, about $1.4 billion dollars have been invested in the forestry sector of Sierra Leone, Ghana, South Sudan, Uganda, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, and Mozambique in the last three decades. As evident from the afore-mentioned list of countries, Nigeria is not currently a top destination for forestry investments and thus losing out from crucial funds that can have multiplier effects on our national economy. There is no reason why Nigeria cannot change this narrative and the earlier we begin to position our nation as the country of choice for forestry investments, the earlier we would begin to reap the benefits.