By Marc Jones
LONDON (Reuters) -Gabon’s government and a coalition of donors have signed an agreement aimed at protecting 34,000 square km (13,000 square miles) of the country’s Congo Basin rainforests.
Dubbed “Gabon Infini”, the plan will combine $94 million of donor money from the likes of the Global Environment Facility and the Bezos Earth Fund with $86 million of government funding over a 10-year period.
It aims to finance new national parks, tackle elephant poaching and boost eco-tourism using what is known as a “Project Finance for Permanence” (PFP) model — an approach that binds the disbursement of funding to key government policy changes.
The model is gaining popularity. Brazil announced a similar agreement on Monday covering nearly 243,000 square km of the Amazon rainforest, while Kenya and Namibia are also in the process of finalising deals.
Gabon represents a crucial ecological anchor within the vast Congo Basin. Almost 90% of its territory is covered by tropical rainforest, home to more than half of the world’s remaining African forest elephants as well as a quarter of surviving western lowland gorillas.
The new plan builds on a “debt-for-nature swap” completed just weeks before a military coup in 2023. Under that deal, Gabon refinanced $500 million in loans with a new bond that sets aside some funds for coastal preservation.
Concern has again been mounting about the country’s finances. A draft 2026 budget approved in September plans to nearly double government spending next year. Credit rating agencies have warned it will ramp its debt-to-GDP ratio to almost 90%, up from 73% at the end of last year.
Former minister Maurice Ntossui Allogo, who has been overseeing the new conservation plan, said Tuesday’s Letter of Intent agreement marked “a decisive milestone” for Gabon’s conservation drive.
Ryan Demmy Bidwell, at non-profit organisation The Nature Conservancy (TNC) that has worked alongside the government, said the importance of Gabon was that almost 90% of the country is covered by intact forest.
The Infini project will lead to new national parks and other protected areas being set up, he added, so that 30% of its rainforests are covered, compared to around 15% currently.
“We hope that Gabon will serve as a model for others in the Congo basin and elsewhere in Africa,” Bidwell said.
(Reporting by Marc JonesEditing by Peter Graff)
