The Government is urging for private investors to venture into investment opportunities in the forestry sector, such as management of the protected state forests and wood processing plants.

During a private sector dialogue convened to encourage investment in the country’s forests, on Tuesday, the Minister for Natural Resources, Dr Vincent Biruta, said Rwanda’s forest industry is growing fast, offering several investment opportunities to the private sector, including wood value-added production.

The meeting attracted a wide range of private sector representatives and discussed the opportunities and challenges in the sector and how stakeholders can work together to make the most of Rwanda’s wood resources.

Biruta said that Government is open for increased investment and collaboration in the forestry sector.

"There are many opportunities for investment and value addition in Rwanda’s forestry sector. We are open to work with the private sector to manage our forests, improve their quality and ensure their efficient use and value addition,” said Biruta.

This could be a timely call, knowing the 2016/17 national budget, which was presented to Parliament by Finance and Economic Planning minister Claver Gatete, last week, has allocated 27 per cent of the entire budget to economic transformation with key focus on wood industry, tourism, textiles, garments and leather industry and trade and investment facilitation, observers say.

Biruta said, "Every year we spend a huge amount of money on importing wood products, even though we have our own forest resources here to utilise.”

The Head of the Forestry and Nature Conservation Department at the Rwanda Natural Resources Authority, Amini Mutaganda, highlighted the state of the country’s forests, the types of species used for afforestation, and the opportunities in the sector.

Mutaganda said some of these investment opportunities in the forestry sector include; acquiring the management of the protected state and district forests, management of state forests, and wood processing in big forest plantations.

Other investment windows in the forestry sector underlined are, recreational activities in both natural and plantation forests, investing in non-wood forest products in both natural and plantation forests, co-management with local and cooperatives /communities with small forests and tree planting on public lands.

Tree species for forestry investment projects in Rwanda included, Eucalyptus, Pinus, Acacia melanoxylon, Callitris robusta, Grevillea robusta, and Cupressus lusitanica, among others.

Readily available opportunities in forest investment cover a total surface of 40,389 hectares, which include forest plantations of Gishwati, Huye Mountain Forest, Mara, among others.

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