Nestled in the giant rainforest of the Congo Basin, Gabon is one of the most carbon positive countries in the world with over 88% of its landmass covered by tropical rainforest.
It is acclaimed in Africa and around the world as a country that has implemented some of the most progressive and effective climate policies.
Politicians and business leaders met for two days in the capital Libreville in early March “One Forest” top, looking at lessons Gabon can teach the rest of the world about forest management. The summit was hosted by Gabon’s President Ali Bongo Ondimba and was attended by several other Central African heads of state, as well as France’s President Emmanuel Macron.
President Macron delivered the keynote speech in a rare speech by a Western head of state at an Africa-focused climate conference.
“The Gabonese rainforest annually captures about a third of the carbon emissions that France produces,” he said. “In the past 30 years, 220 million hectares of rainforest have disappeared – the equivalent of the rainforest in the Congo Basin. The purpose of this One Forest Summit is to mobilize efforts to save these precious rainforests.”
Successful conservation
The French president paid tribute to Gabon’s leadership in protecting the vast rainforest. He said an important way to preserve the forest was to find an economic activity that adds value to the forest without cutting down the trees.
Gabon is a good example, he said, because it has managed to establish a thriving timber industry without wasting the precious natural resource. In 2010, Gabon introduced a total ban on the export of raw wood to encourage local and international companies to set up wood-processing businesses.
Around the same time, it established the Gabon Special Economic Zone (GSEZ) on the outskirts of Libreville to attract foreign direct investment (FDI) in the sector. More than 150 companies are now present in the zone, making everything from plywood to veneers and high-end furniture.
The range of companies has had a clear domino effect on the rest of the timber value chain. All timber entering the zone, which processes about a third of the country’s timber, must come from designated logging sites in Gabon’s forest, which is strictly managed.
The government has imposed strict rules on logging companies operating in Gabon to ensure that all companies must comply FSC standards by 2025. Gabon currently has about 5.5 million hectares of certified forest, almost half of the certified area in the three countries of the Congo Basin.
West needs to do more
However, President Bongo said that despite Gabon’s efforts to preserve critical rainforests, developed countries have not yet given the country the support and recognition it needs.
“Most tropical rainforests are in developing countries that don’t always have the resources to preserve them. But instead of applauding our achievements, the developed world doesn’t seem interested. There is a collective unwillingness from the developed world to pay for our services to the climate.” He added that without financial support it is difficult to ensure that these forests are worth more alive than dead.
One way to finance the country’s rainforest is through carbon credits – Gabon sequesters more than 140 million tons of carbon annually and emits just 40 million tons, giving it huge potential to sell credits to companies that reduce their emissions. want to compensate.
Gabon announced last year that it was looking to issue 187 million carbon credits, which would be the largest ever issuance. However, Bongo says investors are not ready to put money on the table just yet, which has become a huge challenge for forest nations issuing carbon credits.
100 million euros pledged to combat deforestation
To help support Gabon’s conservation efforts, the conference adopted the “Libreville Plan,” which aims to halt deforestation as an effective solution in the fight against climate change.
Donors, governments and climate partners came together to create a €100 million ($105 million) fund, with France pledging €50 million, followed by Conservation International at €30 million and the Walton Foundation at €20 million.
The funds will be available to countries that want to “accelerate their strategy to protect vital carbon and biodiversity reserves through partnerships,” Macron said.
The fund will be used to reward exemplary countries that have preserved their forests by giving them “biodiversity certificates”, the French president said.
He added: “We are betting on a number of companies requesting to buy these certificates, this would be part of their corporate social responsibility policy, and by doing so they will fund areas in the major forest basins that protect their biodiversity and who also work on the sustainable development of indigenous peoples and local communities. This is the same principle as with carbon credits.”
Carbon credits in question
Indeed, Macron said the carbon market has “been adrift in recent years” and is at risk of becoming a “failing model”.
One of the reasons for the failure is that there is a lack of environmental transparency and some projects that are intended to offset emissions are actually not so good for the environment. Another is that the market has been linked to corruption, with consultants, carbon brokers and property developers making a lot of money off a poorly understood system.
“This bottom-up voluntary carbon market has been created, but will not be scaled up until we find a balance and clarity between supply and demand,” said M Sanjayan, CEO of Conservation International. “We can create a wonderful biodiversity credit. And we can make nature certificates – but where is the question? Where are the buyers?”
If investors are not interested in financing conservation-value monetary instruments, most models will eventually fail.
Lee White, Gabon’s minister of forests, oceans, environment and climate change, said in a stark warning to the public that the loss of the country’s rainforest would have catastrophic consequences.
“The forest here represents a 10-year stock of carbon emissions,” he said. “If we lose this forest, we will simply lose the fight against climate change and condemn our children to live in a world that is two, three or four degrees warmer.”