GFC challenges the notion of environmentally and socially responsible commercial forestry in Africa

GFC’s Africa Coordinator Kwami Kpondzo told Africa Business Magazine that despite claims to the contrary from the logging industry, there is no real way to mitigate the more damaging impacts of commercial forestry on the continent.

“We can’t do commercial forestry in Africa without social consequences,” Kpondzo said.

The report continued:

‘Land-grabbing’ is another concern. Kwami Kpondzo, Africa coordinator at the non-profit Global Forest Coalition, warns that forestry plantations inevitably require a “huge amount of land”. In some cases, planting new plantations involves communities being displaced from their agricultural land, he says.

The rise of carbon offsetting is another key driver [of the industry]. Trees remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and landowners that plant trees can sell carbon credits, allowing companies to ‘offset’ their emissions from burning fossil fuels.

To learn more about this issue, check out GFC’s briefer on AFR100: Driving commercial tree plantation expansion in Africa?

 

Read the full article here:  Africa’s forestry sector seeks to overcome growing pains

 

3 Jun, 2024
Posted in GFC in the news