A PRESENTATION TO THE 2007 CHINA WOOD FLOORING CONFERENCE
OUTLOOK OF THE AFRICAN FOREST SECTOR:
FOCUS ON WEST AND CENTRALAFRICAN FOREST POLICY, PRODUCTION, TRADE AND INVESTMENT
Outline
1.Background: African Resource Potential
- Forests and geographical distribution
- Country importance
- Government forest policies and relevance for international trade and investments
2.Timber Concessions policies, exploitation and their current state
- Impressions about their sizes, How they have these come about
- Who are the major holders of concessions in the African Region?
- Levels of exploitation and logging policies (related to species)
- Current “value status�of concessions
3.Private investments in the African Forest Sector
- The nature of these investments and their trends
- Inter-regional comparisons and who the players are
- Policies affecting investments and their developments across the region
4.Developments in country processing capacities and investments
- Domestic industrial timber and wood consumption, outputs and trends
5.Impact of resources, policies and investments on Trade
- Product export performance and trends
- Changes in the direction of African export trade
- The size of the domestic market and how it obtains the raw material
- Position of wood imports in the African region
6.Specific country investment policy attractions
- Ghana- Industrial Free Zones, Special provisions under Investment code
- Developments in Liberia and Congo Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)- The preliminary role of International donor Agencies
- General question of how to overcome “Barrier to Entry�/li>
7.Future potentials of forest exploitation
- Broad outlook of allowable forest cut limits in comparison with current national industrial capacities
- What the African Timber Organization (ATO) is looking for from investments and Africa’s trading partners
- Moves towards Forest Certification in Africa and its impact on producers and the trade.
8.Overview of African Region’s trade with China and future prospects
- Imports into China of timber and wood products
- African Regional imports of pre-finished and finished wood products
- Investments
- Prospects for Chinese future trade and Investments in Africa Timber and Wood products
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