20091222
allafrica

Maputo — The Mozambican government approved on Tuesday a project to plant eucalyptus trees for industrial purposes across large swathes of the northern province of Nampula.

The project, proposed by the Norwegian-owned company, Lurio Green Resources, involves total investment of 2.2 billion US dollars.

According to the government spokesperson, Deputy Education Minister Luis Covane, only 209 million dollars will be spent on the eucalyptus plantation itself. The remaining two billion is for sawmills and other industrial infrastructure.

"The company will establish a forestry plantation for the production of paper, sawn wood and charcoal, and also for the generation of electricity", said Covane. "Part of the land granted to the company will be used for food production".

Lurio Green Resources initially asked for a concession of 210,000 hectares, but in the end the government granted it 126,000 hectares in several blocks in Mecuburi, Ribaue and Nampula districts

The project is expected to create 11,500 jobs, and the company has promised to invest 30 million dollars in building schools, health centres and other infrastructure for communities living in the project area.

A second, even larger eucalyptus project approved by the government on Tuesday will cover over 173,000 hectares in Ile and Namarroi districts, in the central province. In this case, the investor is the Portuguese forestry and paper group Portucel.

Covane gave no details of this project, but from the Portuguese media it is known that Portucel has been negotiating to set up a paper pulp factory in Mozambique.