*Say value chains remain abroad
By Matthew Johnson
LAGOS — STAKEHOLDERS have lamented that Africa is losing huge economic opportunities from its forest resources because much of the value generated from timber, medicinal plants, bamboo, biodiversity, carbon markets and other forest products is captured outside the continent.

They warned that unless African countries develop domestic financing, processing capacity and locally owned value chains, the continent would continue to export raw forest resources while importing higher-value products derived from them.

The stakeholders spoke yesterday at a high-level business and philanthropic leaders’ roundtable on the proposed African Forestry Trust Fund in Lagos, where they examined the continent’s forest financing gap and the economic opportunities embedded in its vast forest resources.

Professor Labode Popoola said Africa’s challenge was no longer limited to deforestation, but also its inability to retain sufficient economic value from its forests.

Popoola said: “Unfortunately, we get very little from it. The resources are drawn from Africa. But the returns are somewhere else.”

According to him, Africa’s forest economy could generate up to 100 million green jobs if the continent developed the required value chains, but inadequate domestic financing remained a major constraint.

He noted that many African countries allocate less than one per cent of their national budgets to forestry, leaving the sector heavily dependent on foreign assistance.

“Government grants will be very insignificant. But it’s possible for the private sector to fill the gap,” he said.

Also speaking, former Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo, who chairs the Sustainable Forest Management Champions initiative, said the increasing interest of international companies in African forest land should force governments to reconsider the strategic economic value of their forests.

He cited large-scale acquisition of forest rights in countries including Zimbabwe, Liberia, Tanzania and Zambia as evidence of the growing international value attached to forest resources.

Osinbajo said forests should no longer be regarded primarily as environmental assets, but as strategic economic resources capable of supporting industries spanning water and food security, pharmaceuticals, sustainable materials and other sectors.

He also called for the contribution of forests to be properly reflected in national accounting systems, arguing that their omission could result in an underestimation of the true strength of African economies.

Similarly, Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, represented by the Commissioner for the Environment and Water Resources, Tokunbo Wahab, said Africa was losing millions of hectares of forests annually despite inadequate financing for sustainable forest management.

He said governments must begin to regard forests as productive economic assets capable of attracting green investments, supporting livelihoods, strengthening food security and improving climate resilience.

Sanwo-Olu urged investors, financial institutions, businesses, development partners and local communities to participate more actively in financing and managing forest resources, stressing that governments alone could not close the continent’s forestry financing gap.

Joining the discussion virtually, economist and development scholar, Prof. Jeffrey Sachs, said African countries could no longer rely on wealthy nations to finance the protection and development of their forests.

Sachs said: “There will be no major development aid coming from outside. Africa will have to mobilise the funds, the resources, the technologies, and the political will to accomplish this.”

On his part, a member of the High-Level Group on Forestry and Bioeconomy, Stephan Schepers, said Africa could secure a significant position in the emerging global bioeconomy if it developed the capacity to retain more of the value generated from its forest resources.

He said: “How Africa can capture more of the value generated by its bioeconomy is an issue that should be addressed from the outset.”