Why Tanzania industrial economy ‘needs' forestry

Dar es Salaam. If the country is to cater for the supply of wood and timber, as raw materials for industrialisation, then investment in tree plantations must be increased, stakeholders have observed.

The stakeholders made the observation taking into account the fact that Tanzania is pushing for industrialisation agenda.

They also said that population growth will push up demand for wood and timber, as well as expansion of infrastructure, construction and manufacturing. .

For his part, African Forestry (AF) chief executive officer Francis Rwabogora said large scale investment in the area was urgently needed to meet market demand.

“With the ongoing constructions of roads and railways, wood is used as a key role material. Wood is nto only for making charcoal but has many other uses including making of pulp and paper, transmission poles and medicine,” he said.

He said forestry sector can play vital roles to reach an industrialization country if well utilized and heavily invested mainly on tree planting.

According to Tanzania Forest Services (TFS), timber and wood supply deficit in the market (not including wood energy) will increase between 2025 and 2035 to a supply gap of 3 million m3 round wood.

“Most of the time people fail to invest in forestry because they are not aware about its benefits and where to access information. It is my hope the developed platform will create investment opportunity especially to locals,” he said.

The national wood market study, timber consumption is expected to more than double from 2.3 million in 2013 to 5.2 million by 2035.