MSc internship: Socio-economic modeling and sustainability of material flows of the forest-wood sector in French Guiana

Author: Ambroise Koffi Yeboua

Supervisors: Guillaume Salzet, Philippe Delacote

Abstract: The forest sector in French Guiana is faced with the challenge of preserving biodiversity and ecosystem services and developing the value of wood to meet the growing need for raw materials and energy. To meet these challenges, the sector’s stakeholders have agreed on two goals: (1) tripling timber production and (2) increasing wood energy production tenfold by 2029. In a sector that brings together actors with different stakes, how do they interact to meet the population’s growing need for wood? The answer to this question is to determine whether the current network of relationships allows the sector to meet these objectives. By mobilizing the framework of the sociology of organized action, we observed that the actors have behaviors turned towards unbalanced power strategies in favor of the actors of the first transformation but structured and regulated by permanent negotiations. The achievement of the sector’s sustainability objectives requires the implementation of action strategies aimed at the transparency of commercial exchanges between actors and which allow for a long-term vision of wood needs.