Forest Resources

Abstract

Africa is endowed with diverse, rich natural and plantation forests which cover 23 per cent of the land area of the continent. These forests provide a wide range of goods and services that create opportunities for development, and support the livelihoods of millions of people, living in and around the forest. They play an important role in the national and local economies in the region, contributing on average 6 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (Barrow and others, 2009), but this value does not include fuel wood which accounts for about 90 per cent of domestic energy, subsistence forest uses or informal and illegal forest production. This issues paper therefore complements the concept note in highlighting challenges in forest sector development and raises some key questions to help focus the ADF-VIII discussions on options for African countries, to achieve rapid socio-economic transformation from their forest resource base and forest sector activities.