AFoA 80 Years | Competitiveness and investments: they affirm that the global leap in the forestry sector requires efficiency and public-private coordination

The consensus on the issues at hand and the challenges were exposed throughout the day. We are all in the same boat, rowing as best we can, but pushing forward, and with the same goals for the future. There is dialogue, there is no way to advance on these issues between the public and private sectors without dialogue, and without the will of both parties. That is one of the main conclusions of this meeting," said the institutional director of the Argentine Forestry Association (AFoA), Claudia Peirano, in an interview with after finishing the seminar. Argentina already has forestry resources, knowledge and human capital; the next leap in scale will depend on building systemic competitiveness, improving infrastructure and logistics, generating legal security and creating conditions capable of attracting world-class investments, she said. The entity celebrated its 80 years of institutional life by consolidating the role with which it was founded, being the nexus articulator representing the sector before society, and supporting the process and sustainability improvements that have accompanied the transformation of forestry activity in the world in these decades with innovation, new technologies, certifications and best practices. I think we can be very satisfied with the work achieved. AFoA has collaborated a lot on public goods issues, which affect the sector in general, not only for the benefit of the associations members. It has always had the support of the entire board of directors in its actions, and I believe that this has been the case for many people. a similarity with the tree, they are people who have a special profile, they do not look at the situation exclusively, but rather look at the long term, which sets another agenda to always try to be prepared, he pointed out. I have been in the AFoA for more than 20 years, and what has been achieved is the effort of many people with strategic vision and convictions, he added. In these years, the organization promoted the creation of forestry certification bodies, through CERFOAR-PEFC Argentina and the national office of FSC; Carbon; the Rural Fire Management Network that allowed prevention measures to be adopted; the Certification of Competencies of forestry workers and the coordination with the entities of the chain through the Argentine Forestry-industrial Council (AFCP, ASORA, FAIMA, SRA, and AFOA). And again, with the seminar they managed to focus on future challenges, a planning characteristic that imprints the DNA of forestry businesses, which are long-term. Investments, systemic competitiveness and the new challenges presented by international markets. were the center of the debate at the seminar proposed by AFoA, with panels and debates on public policies, port infrastructure, added value, international markets, carbon market, logistics and regional productive realities that set the agenda that concerns the sector, with its various realities depending on the segment of the productive chain. The potential of the sector was clear in the panel where we shared four specific projects in Corrientes, of great magnitude. These are executed and projected investments that together exceed US$ 2.5 billion. dimension the change in scale that the Argentine forestry industry could undergo. This did not exist a few years ago. And they are plants prepared to meet the demands that the world demands today: quality suppliers, reliability in the supply chain, Peirano highlighted in the interview. The challenge will be to achieve joint work to build the conditions that allow transforming the concrete opportunities presented into competitive industries, exports, employment and development. paper, carbon capture and ecosystem services are part of a global demand that opens a new window of opportunity for countries capable of producing in a sustainable and competitive manner, points out the AFoA directive. On the other hand, the new conditions of the international market, which represents the American, European or Asian market, says that Germany is no longer competitive in the forestry sector as it once was decades ago, today it has a shortage of raw materials and faces other climatic factors that make everything different, and it must be prepared, Peirano said. For this, He added that it will be essential to achieve confidence in the country, so that investments are made and achieve the expected profitability, logistical connectivity and infrastructure are improved, legal security is guaranteed, financing measures are adopted to encourage such depressed domestic consumption, and the conditions are generated to attract the necessary world-class investments.