The African forest, the Congo Basin, is the most important tropical forest on the earth after the Amazon, and spans six nations, together with Gabon.
In addition to being a treasure trove for biodiversity, forests like these act because the planet’s inexperienced lung, with the Worldwide Union for Conservation of Nature estimating that they take in roughly 2.6 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide every year.
Preserving tropical forests is central to slowing the consequences of local weather change, but regardless of this, massive swathes of forest within the Amazon proceed to be destroyed to make manner for farm land.
The problem of tropical forest preservation was on the coronary heart of the One Forest Summit, a world convention in Gabon’s capital Libreville, organised by the west-central African nation in collaboration with France.
Euronews correspondent Anne Devineaux went to Gabon to search out out extra for Focus.
One Forest Summit
French President Emmanuel Macron, and Gabonese President Ali Bongo introduced this month’s One Forest Pageant on the COP 27 local weather convention in Sharm el-Sheikh in November final yr.
The competition, which befell on the first and 2nd of March, sought to advertise North-South solidarity with regards to local weather change, given the precarity of the worldwide south as sea ranges rise and excessive climate occasions grow to be extra frequent.
Constructing on earlier One Planet Summits, politicians, worldwide firms, scientists and NGOs gathered in Libreville to debate the forestry sector, specializing in three key areas; advancing scientific cooperation, sustainability, and finance.
Gabon’s President, Ali Bongo Ondimba, had a transparent message for these attending the convention: “There aren’t any higher investments as we speak than investing in our forests”.
The second day of the competition honed in on the subject of the Congo basin and the widespread challenges confronted by the African, Amazonian and Asian tropical forest basins, as such forests are big absorbers of carbon dioxide, however these areas stay on the frontline of local weather change.
Ecologist at CENAREST Gabon, Alfred Ngomanda advised Euronews that “The Congo Basin represents 40 billion tons of sequestered CO2… It’s 10 years of world greenhouse gasoline emissions which might be at present saved within the forests of the Congo Basin. In Gabon, it’s 100 million tons per yr”.
The scientist confused that African forests are on the forefront of the battle in opposition to local weather change, with Gabon being one of many few nations on the earth to soak up extra CO2 than it emits.
Defending uncommon species in Gabon
Lee White, Gabonese Minister of Forestry, Sea and Surroundings advised Euronews that the nation has documented the discount of 90 million tons of CO2 emissions, figures which he stated have been validated in November 2022 throughout COP 27.
Gabon has put in place rigorous insurance policies to defend the forests that cowl 88 p.c of its territory, granting ‘nationwide park’ standing to 13 areas 20 years in the past to guard particular natural world.
The federal government has additionally made commitments to guard uncommon species, such because the Kevazingo tree in Pongara Park, which is an costly and sought-after sort of wooden. Equally, these parks present a refuge for animals threatened by trafficking, for instance forest elephants, big pangolins and lowland gorillas.
An absence of assets, nonetheless, has left the door open to poachers.
Conservator of Pongara Park, Patrick Evezoo, stated: “The largest drawback is poaching, poaching of elephants, poaching of plant species, those that lower wooden illegally, and there may be poaching of fish species at sea degree… As in all the opposite parks, we’d like numerous means to do our work effectively.”
Selling a sustainable wooden trade
Outdoors of the nationwide parks, Gabon can be exploring extra sustainable methods to make use of wooden, to eradicate waste and lower down their carbon footprint.
Ten years in the past, the nation created the Nkok financial zone, an space which hosts round 100 firms, lots of that are associated to the forest trade. It has been formally licensed as ‘carbon impartial, and is the house Central Africa’s first plant to fabricate chipboard from wooden waste.
Similtaneously Nkok was established, the nation additionally banned the export of uncooked logs, as a substitute which means producers needed to rework wooden right into a product with greater added worth.
Waris Moulenda Fatombi, from the Administrative Authority Nkok SEZ, stated: “When this zone was launched, we used 40% wooden. Right now, we’re ready to make use of 90% of the logs by way of the valorization of waste.”
All timber that arrives within the Nkok financial zone goes by way of checks by a service referred to as Tracer, to make sure it’s authorized.
An oil nation
Regardless of these constructive steps in the direction of a greener future, Gabon’s economic system nonetheless depends on oil, which might be an issue within the coming a long time.
Lee White, Gabonese Minister of Forestry, Sea and Surroundings, advised Euronews: “In Gabon, an oil nation, within the subsequent 20 years or so, as a result of the G20 nations have crammed the environment with CO2, there’ll not be a marketplace for our oil. We might be pressured to exchange 50% of our economic system, with… with what? With one thing.”
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