‘French-Zambia confer on Timber Investment’

Zambia has gravely lost returns from the timber sector despite its abundance  because  the product is exported as raw material coupled with smuggling and seeks to lure investment and encourage value addition, Minister of Green Economy and Environment (MGEE) Collins Nzovu has observed.

The minister notes, with awe, despite the country’s endowment in the  vast land mass with indigenous and valuable timber, much of exported product is raw and rife with corruption and illegality and want to ensure the country ‘reap the benefits’

Interests from a French based International Association specialized in legal and certified timber trade seeking to explore investment opportunities in the forestry sector in Zambia are positive for the country’s want for benefit from the sector.

Minister Nzovu held a  meeting with the potential investor regretting the under-utilisation of the timber sector  and was discontent with the state of affairs. He asked the International Technical Association for Tropical Woods (ATIBT) to help Zambia tap and derive maximum benefits from the Timber sector.

The minister had requested, in presence of  Zambia’s French embassy staff, for technical and financial support from ATIBT  to achieve value addition for the timber resource. There is a need to add value to the timber to realise a lot of benefits from the sector.

The country is eager to enhance investment in the forestry industry in the country’s timber sector.  It, however, lacks the technological expertise to quantify the timber resource and measure the afforestation efforts.

The minister assures of the country’s unmatched good investment policies favorable to their business. The Government has devised measures intended to protect private investors.

ATIBT director general Benoit Duval promises to create market linkages for the Zambian timber actors to the European market. The is desirous  to further provide the necessary information and facilities to get to the European market to exploit the potential.

The association in collaboration with some European investors seek to undertake a mission to Zambia soon to determine the forest sector’s potential and how to invest in sustainable forest management.

ATIBT is   further interested in collaborating with the Zambian timber players while giving back value to the sector.   The Association wants to develop biodiversity certification for the local timber industry  to minimize the impacts on biodiversity when undertaking activities in the forest.

Of the forests’ estimated total growing stock of 2.9 billion m3, the total volume of commercial timber has been estimated at 340.1 million m3 (or 12%), study shows.

The distribution of commercial volume by forest type and by province shows that of the forests, the semi‐evergreen (Miombo) forests have 75% of the commercial volume, and of the provinces, Northwestern has 33% and Western 18% of the commercial volume respectively.

A  research by Forest Governance and Timber Trade Flows Within, to and from Eastern and Southern African Countries shows Zambia’s  abundant orest cover, although different forest inventories have produced quite different estimates of this forest cover.

An earlier assessment undertaken in the mid‐1980s estimated 61.2 m ha (80% total land area) and the Forest Resource Assessment estimated only 31.2 m ha (41% total land area) and ILUA returned 49.9 m ha (66% total land area).

While these estimates may, in part, reflect gradual deforestation, they also reflect different definitions of forest, inventory methodologies and degrees of precision, so it is difficult to use this data to identify and analyse trends.

But deforestation has had its own toll on the country in recent years.  In 2010, Zambia had 22.4Mha of tree cover, extending over 30$ of its land area. In 2021, it lost 201 kha of tree cover, equivalent to 78.3Mt of CO2 emissions-a serious contradiction to climate change being fought globally, according to: globalforestwatch.org

However, Zambia despite its increasing exports of high value species of among other varieties, rosewood, teak, and mukwa, mainly to China and South Africa, small quantities being consumed on the domestic market illegal trade has heightened.

Recent incidents have revealed illegal exportation of various species of timber, devoid of the Government realizing real returns. Zambia Revenue Authority recently seized about 30 metric tons of illegal rosewood logs destined for the export market.

The logs were found to be thicker than the allowable 15 cm with others as thick as 32 cm, an illegality according to the law, ZRA indicated in a statement seen by FRA.

Illegal logging in rosewood alone leads to staggering losses of about US$3.2 million in revenue and estimated bribes paid to state officials of about US$1.7 million.

The deforestation annual rate, estimated at 250,000–350,000 hectares, results in an annual loss of US$500 million in natural capital stock, revenue estimates show.

Globally, Illegal logging accounts for 50-90% of all forestry activities in key producer tropical forests, such as those of the Amazon Basin, Central Africa and Southeast Asia, and 15-30% of all wood traded globally,  data shows