<![CDATA[
<HTML>
<HEAD><TITLE>UK Tropical Forest Forum</TITLE></HEAD>
<BODY BGCOLOR="#ffffe8">
<H1>The African Timber Trade</H1>
<H2><I>by Geoff Pleydell,<BR> timber trade consultant</H2></I>
<HR>
The principal overseas market for wood from Africa has been Europe. This trade has a long history but mushroomed after the Second World War when Europe was faced with reconstructing devastated cities, towns and industries. There was a desperate need for wood of any sort, and those who today advocate the use of lesser known species might be surprised by the extensive range of tropical African woods being sold in the 1950s.
<P>
West and Central Africa still continue to ship wood products on a large scale to Europe, but have added markets in many other parts of the world. In recent years the historic pattern has been drastically changed by a sudden and very large surge in demand from the Asia Pacific region for African logs.
<P>
Changes in supply or price in any one of the three tropical timber regions almost always affects the trade of the others. Sarawak and Sabah have been the principal sources of tropical logs for Asian markets.
When Sarawak substantially reduced log production to meet the recommendations for sustainability of output proposed by the International Tropical Timber Organisation (ITTO), this created problems for Asian importers with factories to feed. Soon after Sabah banned the export of logs.
<P>
Rapidly many Asian importers faced log shortages and fumed to other sources, including Africa. This caused considerable distortion and problems for some African countries. Equatorial Guinea saw large volumes going to Japan, China and elsewhere. Gabon faced problems. Ghana's log exports, which had previously been gradually reducing as Government banned more individual species from export as logs, suddenly leapt up from 177,000 m3 in 1992 to 572,000 m3 in 1994, before sinking back again.
<P>
Nevertheless Europe, in particular Western and Southern Europe, has been Africa's principal market over the years. In practice, Africa supplies 99% of Western Europe's tropical log imports, about 38% of its tropical sawn wood requirements, roughly 3% of its tropical plywood, and most (84%) of its tropical veneers.
<P>Africa has been the slowest of the three tropical regions to move its focus from raw log exports to more processing before shipment. Where reductions in log exports have been imposed, it has tended to be in those countries aware of the limits to their own natural production forest resources, like Cote d'lvoire and Ghana.
There are a number of reasons why progress has been slow. Endeavours to push tropical African countries towards democratic forms of government do not always sit easily on the traditional groupings and loyalties. Where there is political uncertainty, there is less confidence, and lack of confidence is not a good basis for encouraging investment in more expensive, permanent and modern processing and manufacturing activities.
<P>
There was a time when plywood from Africa was regularly traded in substantial volumes, but many years have passed since Africa was able to compete with the high volume and more up-to-date mills of Indonesia whose industry is strongly disciplined within focused marketing and pricing policies. Asian plywood has commanded 77% of the European market for tropical plywood and Latin America another 20%.
Those Western European plywood manufacturers who have been more reliant on African logs have struggled against this competition from Asian and Latin American hardwood plywood. They also have to battle against softwood plywood from Eastern Europe and North America, and more and more face the increasing success of medium density fibreboard (MDF).
The plywood industry is a mature product sector and is having to meet not only MDF competition but also that from Oriented Strand Board (OSB). MDF is making a big impact in world markets and while MDF mills are being built in tropical Asia, the prospects for this very expensive investment in West and Central Africa are much less obvious.
<P>
Changing from exporting logs to processing in Africa is not quite as easy as it is in South East Asia where the more homogeneous species simplify to some extent species utilisation problems. In African forests the range of species, except for the Okoume/Ozigo forests of Gabon, are much more varied in colour, density and physical properties.
The export of African logs to European Union countries has been declining - from 3.60 million cubic metres in 1983 to 1.88 million cubic metres in 1993.
<P>
In the management of productive forests, Ghana unquestionably leads the way in policy implementation of well constructed forest management systems. In spite of general economic difficulty fairly recently, Ghana has revitalised and upgraded forest management in its array of protected production Forest Reserves which are fundamental to maintaining timber harvests.
Recently the Ghana Government has announced a tight system of felling permits for the farmed forest areas outside the Reserves; these will give farmers greater responsibility and control over trees on land which traditionally belongs to the tribal group, vested in its chiefs and elders. Forest Reserve management has been put back into place by the determined efforts of the Government and a team from the UK Overseas Development Administration.
This involves classical forestry based on detailed inventory by diameter class and species, mapping, yield selection leaving a proportion of mature trees of commercial species in addition to the trees below minimum permitted felling diameters, and post felling inspections and reconciliations based on forty-year cycles.
<P>
The African Timber Organisation has adopted a more technical stance, and offers a regional route for countries to compare and learn from each other's approach to forestry management. The ATO is underresourced and other more direct linkages have developed. For example exchanges have been taking place between the forestry institutions of Cote d'lvoire and Ghana. Opportunities also arose during the meetings of ITTO in Accra, Ghana, in May 1995.
<P>
Exchanging information may not be too difficult but there is a need to reshape it to fit the differing political, economic and land use situations in different African countries. Where Ghana has a history of progress in day to day forest management, the francophone countries are strong on forest research. But everywhere the need is for strength in forest institutions which lack equipment, vehicles, finance and the other essentials vital for confident supervision.
<P>
The forest resources of African countries vary. Cote d'Ivoire and Ghana are unlikely to be able to increase gross volume harvests from limited resources - hence their greater strides in added value strategies. Cameroon is a major exporter, with greater access to inland forest, and is working on encouraging processing and on improving forest management.
The Congo's production areas are split between a southern region, inland from Pointe Noire, and areas in the far north where evacuation of wood is difficult due to railroad problems and hence timber costs are higher. Companies in the Congo with European links have been anxious to prove responsible patterns of working.
Gabon's coastal Okoume forests are supplemented by inland 'bois divers' forests accessible by rail. The forests of Zaire are immense and contain a wide variety of timber species including extensive amounts of <I>Afrormosia</I>, a CITES listed species; distance, transport and politics make for difficulties, but the industry is developing. Liberia shows signs, after six years of civil war, of resuming to peace.
Businesses have inevitably faced enormous problems, though have attempted to carry on, often with pressures from military forces to supply raw materials and money to whichever faction had local control. Angola has suffered similarly. Nigeria is now exporting very little wood, reflecting the collapse of good forest management systems during the time of oil-financed local development.
Also its internal demand is high because of its population of around 100 million people.
<P>
Plantation development for industrial wood in tropical Africa has been relatively slow and routine management of planted trees in some countries appears to be a problem.
<P>
Finally, the slow rate of economic development in tropical Africa keeps fuelwood and charcoal demand high, yet tends to hold back increases in local per capita consumption of wood. On the other hand those West and Central African
countries which encompass most of the tropical rain forest - as well as some of the drier countries - had a population of 281 million in 1991, forecast to rise to 491 million by the year 2010, and to over 700 million by 2025. This has implications for intra-regional trade, and for exports outside the region.
<HR>
<A HREF=http:/www.nri.org/" target="_top"><IMG SRC="/wwwgifs/nribut.gif" BORDER=0></A>
<A HREF="http://www.nri.org/TFF/homepage.htm" target="_top"><IMG SRC="tffhome.gif" BORDER=0></A>
<A HREF="tffindex.htm" target="_top"><IMG SRC="/wwwgifs/index.gif" BORDER=0></A>
<A HREF="tffiss4c.htm" target="_top"><IMG SRC="/wwwgifs/lhand.gif" BORDER=0></A>
<A HREF="tffnews6.htm" target="_top"><IMG SRC="/wwwgifs/rhand.gif" BORDER=0></A>
</BODY>
</HTML>
]]>