Opportunities and Challenges for Enhancing Small-scale Timber Production and Marketing in Africa

The demand for wood products is steadily growing in many African countries because of fast economic growth, increasing population, expanding urbanization and booming construction sectors. Africa’s existing 16 million hectares (ha) of plantations cannot sustainably supply the wood products that the continent needs. The rate of forest plantation expansion in most African countries, except South Africa, is very low. Totally only 10,000 ha of new plantations are established per year (CAP and Indufor 2017). Forest plantation initiatives in Africa, both large and small, have performed below the required level to meet the current and predicted demand (see Figure 11.1). Inadequate new investments in forest plantations will lead to a growing gap in wood product supply and an associated trade deficit. Africa is currently consuming around 100 million m3/year equivalent of roundwood, in the form of lumber, wooden panels, utility poles, building materials, and other value-added products (CAP and Indufor 2017). Only a quarter of this demand is supplied by African plantations, with the balance coming from natural forests and imports. According to CAP and Indufor, Sub-Saharan African countries are importing around USD 2 billion worth of basic forest products per year.

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