FinDev Canada has invested $12m in Miro Forestry Developments, a West-African sustainable forestry and timber products business with plantations in Ghana and Sierra Leone.

The financing will enable the firm to expand its forest plantations and industrial wood processing operations, which in turn will promote job creation and local community development.

“Sustainable forestry balances economic growth and climate change mitigation, which are two of our core development impact goals. By supporting Miro Forestry, we want to contribute to the preservation of forests that will offer a livelihood for generations to come,” said Paulo Martelli, CIO of FinDev Canada.

“Our financing, alongside that of other investors, will contribute to more robust local economies, and significant improvements in reforestation and biodiversity restoration,” he added.

Founded in 2011, Miro Forestry Developments is one of West Africa’s leading integrated forestry and timber enterprises. With plantations on c.32,000 hectares of land, it has seeded over 17 million trees.

The company is focused on producing sawn timber, utility poles, plywood, and energy biomass from fast-growing, high-yield, FSC certified trees, for both local and international markets.

This investment will allow for greater climate change mitigation through carbon sequestration.

Miro Forestry has already planted more than 17 million trees on over 15,000 hectares of degraded land in Ghana and Sierra Leone, 30% of which are under active conservation management.

These forests have cumulatively sequestered over 1.3 million tonnes of CO2 to date.

With expanded operations, the number of trees under cultivation will increase and the firm expects to sequester an additional five million tonnes of CO2 by 2030. 

The company’s expansion will help maintain and create up to 5,000 skilled jobs in Ghana and Sierra Leone.

Miro Forestry Developments estimates it contributes more than $5m annually in salaries and the procurement of goods, services, and infrastructure to the communities around its plantations.

Andrew Collins, Miro’s CEO, said: “We are delighted to have FinDev Canada invest into the business. FinDev Canada are a strong partner and we look forward to further developing Miro with their support."

“Whilst maintaining the quality of our plantations, we are now focused on rapidly developing our timber processing operations to develop into a vertically integrated, profitable, timber products company, with a major focus on plywood for the local, regional and export markets. This is a particularly important task as the overall success of Miro will be a bellweather to the sub-Saharan African sustainable forestry and timber products industry. This is an industry sector which requires greater investment into the successful operators producing certified timber products for sustainable economic return, industrial development and balance of trade in the region, which remains one of the most attractive globally.”