Africa’s Forests Can Drive $30trn Bioeconomy By 2050 – Stakeholders

Africa’s vast forest resources could position the continent to capture a significant share of the global bioeconomy, projected to exceed $30 trillion by 2050, stakeholders at a high-level forestry roundtable in Lagos have said.

They also called on African countries to take greater ownership of their forest resources, develop domestic financing mechanisms and build local value chains to prevent environmental degradation while retaining more of the wealth generated from timber, carbon markets, biodiversity and other forest-based activities.

The stakeholders spoke at a business and philanthropic leaders’ roundtable on the proposed African Forestry Trust Fund, which brought together government officials, business leaders, academics and development partners to examine Africa’s forest financing gap and its implications for economic development.

Former VicePresident, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, who chairs the Sustainable Forest Management Champions initiative, said growing international interest in African forest land should prompt governments to reassess the strategic and economic importance of the resource.

He cited large-scale acquisition of forest rights in countries including Zimbabwe, Liberia, Tanzania and Zambia as evidence of the increasing value attached to Africa’s forests.

Osinbajo said, “It struck me, then, why are all these international companies buying up forest land? … This one struck me: forest land. I think that, generally speaking, one of the key things I would keep in mind is that forest land is the future.”

He said forests should no longer be viewed solely as environmental assets but as strategic economic resources capable of supporting water and food security, pharmaceuticals, sustainable materials and several other industries.

The former vice-president also called for the economic contribution of forests to be properly captured in national accounting systems, arguing that failure to reflect their full value could lead to an underestimation of the strength of African economies.

“We must include in our national accounts the real figures concerning our world. That would make a difference to how that rates us,” he said.

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

He said the continent must begin to treat forests as economic assets capable of supporting businesses, green investments, livelihoods, food security and climate resilience.

Sanwo-Olu stressed that governments could not tackle the challenge alone, urging investors, financial institutions, businesses, development partners and local communities to play a greater role in financing and managing Africa’s forests.

He said sustainable forest management should ultimately be measured by its impact on livelihoods, communities and the environment, particularly as rapid urbanisation continues to increase pressure on forest resources.

Professor Labode Popoola said Africa’s challenge extended beyond deforestation to the continent’s inability to retain enough economic value from its forest resources.

He identified timber, engineered wood, bamboo, shea butter, gum arabic, forest coffee, medicinal plants, bioenergy and tourism as areas with significant potential to generate economic returns and create jobs.

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

He said the forest economy could generate up to 100 million green jobs if Africa developed the necessary value chains, but inadequate domestic financing remained a major constraint.

According to him, many African countries allocate less than one per cent of their national budgets to forestry, leaving the sector heavily dependent on international support.

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

Joining the discussion virtually, economist and development scholar, Prof. Jeffrey Sachs, said Africa could no longer depend on wealthy countries to protect its forests or finance its environmental priorities.

“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,” he said.

Sachs urged African countries to develop a common strategy for managing their natural resources and pursue long-term financing partnerships with China, India, Brazil, Western Asia and other emerging economies.

He also called for stronger access to international capital markets, disclosing plans to work with the African Union on an assessment of sectors capable of driving economic growth towards 2040, with forestry expected to feature prominently.

Similarly, Stephan Schepers, a member of the High-Level Group on Forestry and Bioeconomy, said Africa could use its forest resources to participate more effectively in the emerging global bioeconomy.

He said the global bioeconomy was currently valued at about €4 trillion and could exceed €30 trillion by 2050.

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

The stakeholders said the proposed African Forestry Trust Fund could provide a platform for mobilising public, private and philanthropic capital for forest restoration, sustainable management, processing, infrastructure, technology, skills development and market expansion.

They, however, stressed that attracting private capital would require transparent governance, functional financial markets, stronger research capacity and deeper regional trade integration.

They warned that Africa’s forest future would depend not only on halting deforestation but also on developing locally owned value chains around its renewable forest resources while ensuring their long-term sustainability.