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African Conservation, Cora Form Gabonese Forestry Company

African Conservation, Cora Form Gabon Forestry Company

African Conservation Development Group and Cora Group of Italy will form a sustainable forestry venture that will oversee 400,000 hectares (988,400 acres) of concessions in southern Gabon and a timber-processing facility in Port Gentil.

The company, to be known as African Equatorial Hardwoods, plans to practice so-called sustainable forestry where trees are harvested on a 25-year rotational basis. It ultimately plans to switch to plantation forestry on 13,000 hectares of previously degraded land, they said in a statement on Wednesday.

The merger between African Conservation’s Grande Mayumba Development Co. and Cora Wood Gabon, will result in the investment of 30.5 million euros ($34 million) by 2026 to boost timber-processing capacity with a new factory to be built in southern Gabon, the companies said. The harvested trees are used to produce sawn timber, plywood and veneers. The company will employ about 900 people by 2025.

Expansion of sustainable forestry is part of a strategy for Gabon, the world’s second-most forested nation, to lessen its reliance on oil. It’s also seeking to create a wildlife-tourism industry to take advantage of its populations of lowland gorillas and diminutive forest elephants, and to sell carbon credits for protecting its forests. 

“Our ambition with Equatorial Hardwoods is to create a sustainable forestry and timber-processing powerhouse in southern Gabon,” Alan Bernstein, the chairman of African Conservation, said in the statement. “Gabon has had a concerted policy of protecting its forests since 2002, but it also needs to grow revenues from timber as it transitions away from its historical dependence on oil.”

African Conservation, was founded by Bernstein and includes family offices among its shareholders. Cora, based in Vicenza, is a family controlled company. 

Other forestry firms operating in Gabon include Rougier SA, which manages close to 990,000 hectares of forest. Precious Woods Holding AG and Compagnie des Bois du Gabon each manage about 600,000 hectares.

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