Mozambique: WWF, Portucel promote debate on planting forests in Africa

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Mozambique: WWF, Portucel promote debate on planting forests in Africa

4:25 CAT | 19 Nov 2019

Photo: Twitter / @andyheald

The planting of forests in Africa to meet the growing global demand for timber, but in order to create wealth locally and without harming the environment, will be under discussion Tuesday and Wednesday in Maputo.

The initiative comes from the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and the company Portucel Moçambique (part of Portugal’s Navigator), which has a forestry plantation project under way for the industrial production of pulp in the centre of the country, involving communities.

“Sustainable forestry development in Africa must reconcile economic and social prosperity with environmental resilience,” the promoters said.

The demand for wood around the world is expected to triple by 2050, putting more pressure on natural forests and the livelihoods of rural communities.

Plantations can play a positive role in responding to global demand if they are managed in an environmentally and socially responsible way and if they do not replace natural forests.

The two-day debate is part of the annual meeting of the New Generation Plantation (NGP) platform, founded by the WWF under the slogan “Social Prosperity and Sustainable Management of the Rural Landscape” and aims to disseminate good practices.

In this case, Portucel presents its project in Mozambique as a set of “sustainable plantations that support rural prosperity, in an inclusive and shared approach” with the people of the provinces of Manica and Zambézia, in the centre of the country, said João Lé, executive director of Portucel, one of the participants in today’s session.

The meeting will also bring together bankers to discuss ways of deepening commercial investment in the forestry sector in Africa, in addition to presenting projects considered innovative from Uganda, Ghana and South Africa.

Source: Lusa