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forest certification in gabon
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Forest Certification in Gabon
Richard Eba’a Atyi*
abstract
Gabon has received much attention by those promoting forest certification because of
its exceptional biological diversity. Because Europe is Gabon’s second market following
Asia, the domestic sector has taken interest in forest certification from its German, UK,
Belgian and Dutch markets seriously. Located in the West Coast of the Central Africa
sub-region, Gabon’s forests cover 20 million hectares, which represents over four fifths
of its total land area. While the forest sector only represents 4 percent of Gabon’s GDP,
a figure significantly overshadowed by crude oil production, the timber industry
employs more people than any other private sector in Gabon and produces 4 million
cubic meters of industrial round logs annually, most of it sold in international markets
as round logs. All forests of Gabon are part of the national forest domain, and are the
exclusive property of the state. Forest certification and debates were first introduced
in Gabon in 1996 following proactive donor projects. Despite the interest from the
forest sector, certification’s emergence has been slow. With the exception of a
certificate that was awarded and then withdrawn, to date the FSC has yet to certify
any forests, while the Dutch-based Keurhout system has certified three companies,
whose land areas total 1.5 million ha. However, the impact of forest certification can
also be assessed by the ways its ideas of sustainable forest management have
influenced governmental policy deliberations over power sharing among
stakeholders, and ecological considerations of the forest ecosystems. While the
present ability of forest certification to directly improve on forest management
practices is still limited, an increasing number of organizations in Gabon consider
forest certification as one potential tool to promote sustainable forest management.
* Richard Eba’a Atyi, Ph.D.
Regional Coordinator , ITTO
Project “Promotion of
Sustainable Management of
African Forests” Libreville,
Gabon
richard_ebaa@yahoo.fr
yale school of forestry & environmental studies