Lessons from 30 years of African Commercial Forestry Investments
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This report was published in February 2024 by Gatsby Africa and draws on research developed in collaboration with Criterion Africa Partners (CAP) and Wellspring Development. It analyses forestry investments made between 1990 and 2022 across multiple Sub-Saharan African countries and focuses on lessons relevant to future investors, governments, and development actors.
What’s Inside this Study
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Executive summary: presents the investment history of commercial forestry in Sub-Saharan Africa and outlines major findings, challenges, and opportunities for future growth.
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Industry context and definitions: defines commercial forestry, sustainable planted forests, industrial-scale forestry, and smallholder forestry, providing a common framework for understanding the sector.
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Methodology: combines proprietary investment data, literature reviews, financial analysis, carbon modelling, and stakeholder interviews across the forestry value chain.
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Economic and environmental potential: explores forestry’s role in climate mitigation, restoration, biodiversity, wood supply, fuelwood markets, and low-carbon building material production.
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Key findings: identifies recurring investment challenges, including limited industrial processing, market constraints, financing risks, regulatory barriers, and management capability gaps.
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Opportunities for action: recommends strategies to accelerate sector growth, including industrialisation, smallholder integration, expanded timber markets, and carbon finance innovation.
How It Can Help You
This report provides practical insights into the factors that influence forestry investment performance and identifies opportunities to strengthen sustainable wood markets. It helps inform decisions around industrial processing investments, sustainable timber sourcing, ESG alignment, and the development of climate-positive building material value chains.
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