What

The Africa Sustainable Forestry Fund II (ASFF II) is a European Investment Bank fund supporting rural development and combating climate change by investing in sustainable forestry in Africa.

Investments into projects, such as timber production and the development of local forestry enterprises, will support socioeconomic development in rural areas and combat the impact of climate change by protecting soils and sequestering carbon.

The Fund aims to acquire and improve the management of existing forestry plantations in order to increase yields in a long-term sustainable manner. Additionally, the Fund will invest in selected timber processing facilities in order to develop a portfolio integrating the forest biomass value chain. 

ASFF II will expand the investment programme initiated by its predecessor, ASFF I, aiming to achieve a combined total of 250,000 hectares of sustainable forestry plantations. The two Funds aspire to create a timberland investment platform with the potential to integrate Africa into the timberland global investment community. 

How

The Fund shall carefully analyse each new greenfield project and its consequences on the financial model of the Fund, during the investment period. They will be reports every six months until three years after the plantation establishment. In addition, a clear land ownership, social and environmental baseline has to accompany the due diligence process.  

The Fund shall report on an agreed set of key performance indicators, which should include area under productive management, employment generation, net carbon sequestration, timber outputs and status of acquisition or implementation of forest certification to the satisfaction of the Bank.