Swiss Wood Firm To Invest 900 Million Euros In Tunisia

Switzerland-based Global Wood Holding will invest 900 million euros to grow Eucalyptus trees in Tunisia and export the wood to Europe, creating 45,000 jobs reports World Environmemt News.  The project will be sited on 160,000 hectares in the Tunisian desert some 500 km (310 miles) south of Tunis. The company’s deputy chairman Aldo Bonaldi, speaking at news conference with Tunisian State Lands Minister Fouad Dagfous, said he expected to export two million tonnes of wood each year.The project would be completed over 15 years, he said. Eucalyptus has attracted attention from development researchers and environmentalists. It is a fast-growing wood, its oil can be used for cleaning and functions as a natural insecticide, and it is sometimes used to drain swamps and thereby reduce the risk of malaria. But it is also known as an invasive water-sucker, leading to controversy over its overall environmental total impact.

Dagfous said “all the guarantees to protect the environment” had been provided.

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