Outlook for Sustainable Forest Bioeconomy in Gabon, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa and Tanzania

Forests are central to circular bioeconomies because forests are the main source of non-food, non-feed renewable biological resources. Wood is the most versatile renewable material on Earth and is fundamental to making the circular bioeconomy work. The forest bioeconomy encompasses not only traditional forest sectors, such as forestry, sawnwood, paper and wood products, but also new wood-based industries, such as biotextiles or biochemicals, the services related to those products (for example, research and development, education), and other forest ecosystem services (such as non-wood products, carbon storage or recreation).

In the African context, the forest bioeconomy could generate large opportunities. Africa has huge potential to derive more value from its forests, even without producing more wood, while advancing environmental, economic and social sustainability. New and more resource-efficient uses of biological resources and waste could bring new business prospects, incomes and jobs, and also help to diversify economies.

Creating more wealth from African forests does not have to mean deforestation or forest degradation. In fact, it could mean exactly the opposite by creating more incentives to take care of forests, and adding more value to them through industrial processing that embraces the circular bioeconomy.

In this report, we ask the question: how could forest bioeconomy contribute more to the wellbeing of African countries while at the same time helping to address climate change and other sustainability challenges? We focus mainly on wood products; future studies on non-wood products and other forest ecosystem services are also needed.

Africa consists of 54 countries with vast differences between them and the forests they contain. Consequently, a successful forest bioeconomy and how it is implemented is likely to vary significantly between the countries – one size does not fit all. It is these differences that help us to illustrate how the forest bioeconomy could be an answer to the very different conditions in African countries, and how it needs to be tailored to local circumstances.

In this report, we study five African countries in detail:

1. Gabon: the forest country

2. Kenya: a small forest sector with untapped potential

3. Nigeria: population growth the major driving force for the forest-based bioeconomy

4. South Africa: the forest industry powerhouse

5. Tanzania: large forest resources and stable institutions

One of the key factors that will determine forest bioeconomy development in each of the five countries will be what happens to fuelwood development in the future. In these countries, the total roundwood production in 2020 was 180 million cubic metres, of which 81% was used for wood fuels (bioenergy) and only 19% for industrial roundwood. The social, economic and environmental costs of a fuelwood-dominated cooking and heating energy system are immense, and there must be more efficient, sustainable and value-added use of forest resources if there is to be viable forest-based bioeconomy development.