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At the conference, countries gather to act towards achieving goals agreed under the Paris Agreement. This is a legally binding international treaty on climate change adopted by 196 Parties at COP 21 in Paris, on 12 December 2015; and entered into force on 4 November 2016. Its goal is to limit global warming by bringing all nations into a common cause to undertake ambitious efforts to combat climate change and adapt to its effects.

World leaders will discuss interventions they plan to use towards mitigating climate change as agreed in the treaty at the climate implementation summit on 7 and 8 November in Sharm el-sheikh,Egypt. Nations are expected to demonstrate their courses of action adhering to the outcomes of COP 26 held in Glasgow last year.

Topics to be discussed throughout the conference from 6-18 are action on climate and SDGs, adaptation and resilience, capacity building, climate finance, climate technology, education and youth, gender, global stock take, innovation, land use, local communities and indigenous peoples’ platform, marketing and non-marketing mechanisms, mitigation, the ocean, pre-2020 ambition and implementation and science.

African Forestry (AF) believes East Africa led by Tanzania can be the next Vietnam. Tanzania has readily available labor and adequate raw materials which support the establishment of forest industries to encourage more investment. It’s ideal location as a coastal country and a gateway to other east, central and southern African countries can also make it a central market for finished forest products. Despite these facts, the following must be considered.

The need to create an enabling environment for investors to invest in forest industries and providing areas where they can build their industries near the raw material areas is inevitable. Reducing import tariffs on materials/equipment that are necessary for the establishment and processing activities of forestry enterprises like treatment chemicals and machinery.

The Tanzanian government has made several fiscal interventions this year that directly relate to the forestry business environment including the removal of value-added tax on standing trees to facilitate investments in forestry enterprises, increase employment opportunities and sustainable management of forest resources. Through this, it will increase revenue due to the growth of the sector and its value chain and thus bring an increase by a scale of 7,311 million shillings. The recently launched engineered wood product development framework outlines the steps Tanzania will take toward forestry industry growth. Secondly, the government has reduced excise duty on forest products (forest produce CESS) from 5 percent to 3 percent. The aim of this measure is to reduce costs for forest products traders and to promote the forestry sector.