AfDB Releases Report on Capital Flows

• AfDB Releases Report on Capital Flows

The African Development Bank (AfDB) and the Climate Investment Funds’ Forest Investment Program (CIF FIP) have released a report on how unlocking capital flows to foster forest sector development in Africa.

The report builds on the results of the first African Forestry Investment Conference (AFIC) organised by AfDB in June this year in Accra, Ghana. Attended by over 70 participants, the conference highlighted the benefits of forestry investments in Ghana and in West Arica.

African countries have experienced the world’s most extreme land degradation through deforestation and this is seriously impacting Africa’s economic development, and compromising the continent’s resilience to climate change. Forestry is historically and currently a critical sector for Ghana, supporting the livelihood of a significant part of its population but Ghana’s forest resources have over the last decades been depleted at an alarming rate.

Sustainable forest management is therefore important to curb this trend and keep Ghana on the path to green growth. The sector requires long term funding but currently attracts very limited private sector financing due mainly to perceived high risk and the nature of the financial market.