**This article has been reproduced from a post on LinkedIn by the author**
In Zambia's Industrial Plantations (Pine and Eucalyptus), there was no replanting of areas cut between 1985 and 2000. This was due to the thought that we had enough trees with no capacity utilization after noticing that the pulp and paper plant which was anticipated to be put up was not established. In 1990 the biggest sawmill belonging to a para-statal organization Industrial Plantations got burnt at Kafubu Industrial Timber Enterprise and this created a timber shortage in the country. Small scale Saw millers came onboard using push bench sawmills to try and fill up the gap. Due to lots of redundancies in Para-statal companies, a lot of people saw a good opportunity in the timber industry and came on board to produce timber to meet the demand. In 2004, there were only 5 saw millers engaged in buying round wood in Chati Plantations one of the 4 forest plantations belonging to Industrial Plantations-now known as Zaffico.
PHOTO CREDIT: Zambia.the report.com - planting of pine trees in progress
By 2018 we had 1,019 Saw millers participating in the production of quality Pine and Eucalyptus timber on the Copper belt. This time it was realized the plantations we have are not enough to give and fulfill the market demands for timber, so the Parastatal (Zaffico) now embarked on an intensive replanting program of felled areas and also going to other provinces to acquire more land to establish Forest Plantations. This proved to be a money-spinner however, the government made a grave mistake of sidelining foresters and employing non-foresters to run the company. By 2021 Saw millers were being allocated 50 cubic meters per 3 months instead of 350 cubic meters per month as previously allocated in 2009. Apart from the timber being produced, the environment also benefits in that air pollution is minimized and there is also production sustainability.
Apart from Zambian customers benefiting from the produced timber, customers were coming from the Democratic Republic of Congo who became the main customers for those producing in Mufulira, Kitwe, Kalulushi, Chingola, and Chililabombwe and they were taking more than 60% of the prime timber produced. Since they were able to buy in bulk (they came with US$ and when they convert to Zambian Kwacha, they had a lot of cash due to the weakening of the local currency), they started to control the prices. Without this DRC market, the timber price would have been very low and Zaffico would have had problems as at the moment they increase prices at will and I don't know how sustainable Zaffico would have been. Zaffico has now started plantations in almost all provinces because they could not find enough land on the Copper belt to plant enough trees.
