Global Utmaning

13 år sedan

How can forests contribute to sustainable development in Africa? And how can Africa eventually become a major supplier of bio-energy at competitive prices? That´s two of the main topics of the new Global Challenge project Forestry for Development, F4D, led by environmental and climate consultant Mattias Goldmann.

Tropical forests are the focus for both climate change and the work on biodiversity. At the same time something of a “land grab” is going on. In which investors from around the world have become aware of the cheap biomass, land and labor in Africa.
– Here’s an opportunity to achieve sustainable forestry on a commercial basis, which is important to review and develop, says Mattias Goldmann.

African bio-energy
One of the study’s starting point is that Africa can become a major supplier of bio-energy at competitive prices, while the forest is a carbon sink through sustainable forest management. The UN climate process of negotiation mechanisms created to financially compensate for this by REDD and REDD +.

Collaboration with the Swedish forest industry
The project is partly financed by Sida, The Swedish international development cooperation agency, and by Southern forest owners and Sveaskog, both with strong interest in the development of sustainable energy.

African partners

African Wildlife Foundation and Co-operation for Sustainable Development in Africa are local partners in Africa. The project examines forest projects in Kenya and Tanzania, where Sweden for a long time have been involved in various forestry projects, as well as Liberia and Sierra Leone, which after years of civil war have to find new income opportunities and where the Swedish energy company Vattenfall  already has invested in buying used rubber trees for conversion into biomass. All four countries have a high level of deforestation.

Want to know more? Do you have input to the project? Contact Mattias Goldmann, mattias.goldmann@globalutmaning.c3177.cloudnet.cloud or +46-70-309 00 45