FMO unveils Global Forestry Program to mitigate climate change
Dutch development bank FMO has launched a global forestry investment programme to mitigate the process of global climate change, with the initial extension of $20 million in financing to plantation companies operating in Ghana and Sierra Leone in West Africa and Laos in Southeast Asia.
FMO is to provide $10 million in mezzanine debt to Miro Forestry Developments, one of the largest forestry plantation companies in West Africa, for capital expenditure and operational costs. The funding will enable the company to nearly double the area of plantation in Ghana and Sierra Leone to 19,000 hectares by 2020, from 10,000 hectares currently.
The project also receives capacity development budget out of MASSIF to finance a two-year pilot of the first micro-forestry scheme in Ghana and Sierra Leone.
FMO will also extend a $10 million loan ($5 million senior debt from FMO-A and $5 million from the Infrastructure Development Fund) to Burapha Agro-Forestry, a Swedish-owned agroforestry plantation and processing company operating in the greater Vientiane area of Laos.
Burapaha is aiming to increase its plantation base and to build a plywood mill, with a nominal capacity of 59,000m3 in wood products for export.
