Africa’s forests can be a cornerstone of sustainable bioeconomy - FAO report
24 October 2024, Nairobi - Africa’s forests hold huge potential to contribute to a sustainable bioeconomy and help combat climate change if the region can overcome unique challenges, according to a new joint report by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and Dalberg.
Launched today at the Global Bioeconomy Summit 2024 in Nairobi, Building a sustainable bioeconomy in Africa through forest products – trends, opportunities and challenges outlines ways in which the region could move towards a forest-based bioeconomy by boosting the development and use of forest products.
The report also laid the foundations for discussions at the Summit, exploring how Africa can advance its bioeconomy through sustainable forest resource use, contributing to achieve climate, biodiversity and land degradation neutrality targets, and highlighting the potential of private sector for catalyzing forest-based bioeconomy development in Africa.
“Africa’s forests and wooded land cover 36 percent of the region, and forests already play a significant part in the livelihoods of the population by providing food, energy, medicine, building materials and income through harvested forest products,” said FAO Senior Forestry Officer Sven Walter, who presented the publication at the Summit.
“With the population expected to double by 2050, strategic action is needed to protect the region’s forests and sustainably expand forest production to safeguard the environment while meeting the growing demands of its population.”
Huge gains possible
The report highlights opportunities for the wood processing industry, domestic ecotourism, and its construction sector to use wood – which is renewable and actually stores carbon for its lifetime, helping to combat climate change - rather than concrete and steel, which have a heavier carbon footprint.
If it does so, the report estimates, the region stands to make huge gains by 2050, including some USD 1 trillion added to the economy and 100 million new green jobs in wood processing, wood building and ecotourism.
However, for a successful transition to a forest-based bioeconomy, the sustainable management of both existing natural and planted forests and newly established forests will be necessary, the report explains. This includes the restoration of forests and trees in landscapes and as part of agroforestry. This could contribute to creating carbon sinks through forest plantations on agricultural, degraded or open lands.
Despite the region’s efforts in biodiversity conservation and sustainable forest management, its forest areas face the world’s highest deforestation rate, with a net forest loss of 3.9 million ha/year. This rapid rate of deforestation is partly driven by agricultural expansion, animal husbandry, land-use shifts (formal and informal), and fuelwood collection, the report says. All of these are influenced by the demands of a growing population, and global demand for agricultural products, wood and other natural resources.
Unlocking opportunities
The report underlines that to fully tap the opportunities provided by a forest-based bioeconomy, it is necessary to safeguard bioeconomy-related interventions against the potential creation of harm, and to address possible challenges related to sustainable growth to ensure sustainable demand and supply of harvested forest products.
Solutions are needed to additional challenges presented by climate change – which affects forest growth and productivity – as well as complex land tenure systems, limited technology used in forest value chains and a shortage of high-level skills needed.
The report calls for significant investment, innovation, political will, private sector support, public awareness and skills development to achieve a shift towards a more healthy and sustainable economy for the region.