Promoting a sustainable intra-African timber trade

The EUDR, a new European Union regulation on deforestation-free supply chains, aims to provide EU consumers with deforestation-free products and encourages sustainable production in producer countries. However, there are concerns that it may disrupt supply chains, negatively impact smallholders due to high compliance costs, and exacerbate land conflicts.

While many African countries will strive to comply with the regulation, the strict due diligence requirements could lead some countries to divert trade away from Europe to markets with less stringent sustainability standards. This could hamper progress in sustainable forest management, and it raises the question of how African countries could take action to change the trajectory and foster their own sustainability transitions.

The recent “African Leaders Nairobi Declaration on Climate Change and Call to Action” establishes important goal posts in this regard, including recognizing the key role of forests in Africa. The declaration and call to action highlights the need to “develop and implement policies, regulations and incentives aimed at attracting local, regional and global investment in green growth and inclusive economies.” It also points to continental collaboration, especially through the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), as essential for enabling and advancing green growth.

Scaling up the intra-African use of timber for green growth

The project “Strengthening institutional arrangements for promoting a sustainable intra-African trade in timber products” takes this declaration and call to action as a point of departure. The project ’s originality lies in its interpretation of the EUDR as a disruption that has the potential to shake up existing international trade patterns – but that also provides an opportunity for reflection and a change in trajectory, especially in countries facing declining prospects in the European market.

Therefore – rather than joining the race for technical solutions to become compliant with the provisions of the EUDR – the project seeks to work with stakeholders to co-develop strategies to scale up the intra-African use of timber for sustainable green growth. To support these alternatives, the project will suggest policy instruments, provide recommendations for reducing trade barriers in AfCFTA, and develop proposals for creating an African certification scheme.

The project pursues three specific objectives:

1. Identify entry points for an increased use of timber in African green growth strategies

The project aims to work with stakeholders to assess the use of timber in African green growth strategies, and to develop visions on how to scale up the use of domestic timber for green growth.

2. Assess how the African Continental Free Trade Area can foster a new perspective on timber as a resource for sustainable green growth

Through research and outreach, the project aims to help unlock the socioeconomic potential of the intra-African trade in timber, thus contributing to a change in perspective on the use and value of timber from an export commodity to a valuable resource for green growth.

3. Assess the potential for a simplified and accessible African certification scheme for timber products

The project proposes an outline for a simplified, operationally and financially accessible African certification scheme. The proposed certification scheme would have sustainable forest management and biodiversity conservation at its core, and foster climate change mitigation and adaptation. The scheme would be developed to meet the requirements of the AfCFTA agreements and to synergize as far as possible with existing forest certification schemes and the EUDR. An indigenous, socioeconomically driven, context-specific certification scheme would provide benefits and opportunities to strengthen the African voice in sustainability governance.

The research focuses on the Congo Basin and pursues an inter- and transdisciplinary approach. A collaborative project by CDE and the African Forest Forum, it places strong importance on stakeholder interactions to ensure the work remains relevant and can directly influence policy decisions.