Tanzanian minister highlights global demand for timber

The global demand for timber resources has been highlighted by Tanzania's Minister for Natural Resources, who has called on international investors to entrust more of their money to alternative funds such as timber funds.

Ezekiel Maige told a gathering of international businessmen in the East African nation that the national demand for timber and its byproducts had reached 5 million cubic metres, while the nation's timber farms currently only had the capacity to produce 1.2 million cubic metres.

He said the figures highlighted the opportunity that exists in timber investment, with the picture looking similar in a host of nations across the globe.

"I request you to wake up and invest in the sector especially in massive planting of trees since the demand is on the rise," he told the gathering, pointing our that the scarcity of timber has led to an increase in applications for the harvest of the products, as well as a rise in the need for imports of the commodity from other African countries and Brazil.

Maige took the meeting as an opportunity to outline a new procedure for harvesting permits, and explained the new Forest Fund, which will help to support the planting of trees in government and private owned farms.