STATUS OF TROPICAL FOREST MANAGEMENT 2011

GABON
it at about 24.6 million hectares. Gabon has an
estimated 160 000 hectares of mangroves (Spalding
et al. 2010).

Forest resources
Gabon has a land area of 26.8 million hectares andan estimated population in 2010 of 1.5 million
people (United Nations Population Division 2010).
It is ranked 103rd out of 182 countries in UNDP’s
Human Development Index (UNDP 2009). The
country is in the western part of the Congo Basinand is characterized by three biogeographic regions:a coastal sedimentary basin containing forest andsavanna; a medium-altitude Precambrian plateau(averaging 600 m above sea level), which covers
about two-thirds of the country and is largely
forested apart from savanna in the east; and almost
entirely forested granite massifs in the north andsouth – Cristal Mountains, Mayombe and Chaillu –where altitudes range between 800 m and 1000 m.
FAO (2010) estimated Gabon’s total forest area at
21.7 million hectares, which is nearly 85% of theland area, and de Wasseige et al. (2009) estimatedForest types. There are three major forest types:
evergreen rainforest in the west, which has beenheavily harvested, degraded and in some areas
reduced to secondary forest characterized by anabundance of Aucoumea klaineana (okoumé) andDacryodes buettneri (ozigo); the central Gabonese
forest, covering most of the country, which isvery similar to the closed humid forest foundelsewhere in the Congo Basin and also in Liberia,with many of the same tree species (e.g. Canarium
schweinfurthii – aiélé, Lophira alata – azobé,
Entandrophragma spp, Khaya spp and Triplochiton
scleroxylon – ayous); and a semi-deciduous
forest type in the northeast, characterized by a
predominance of Maranthaceae in the sub-layer andtrees such as Terminalia superba (limba), Millettia
laurentii (wengé) and ayous.
Permanent forest estate. The PFE is estimated at
13.5 million hectares (Table 1).a

Forest ecosystem healthDeforestation and forest degradation. With alow overall population density and 60% of the
population living in urban areas, there is little
anthropogenic pressure on Gabon’s forests. The
Government of Gabon (2008) indicated an averageannual deforestation rate of 0.12% (about 10 000
hectares per year) and an average degradation rateof 0.09%, based on satellite coverage between 1990
and 2000. Most of the forest estate is still composedof primary forest (Table 2). The main causes ofdeforestation are small-scale agriculture established

Table 1 Permanent forest estate
Reporting year

2005*
2010
*

90

Estimatedtotal forest
area, range(million ha)

Total closed
natural forest(’000 ha)

25.8
21.8–24.6

21 80018 700As reported in ITTO (2006).

PFE (’000 hectares)
Production
Protection
NaturalPlantedTotal

10 60010 600a

13 325
13 525

25
25a

2700
2900

GABON

Table 2 Forest condition
PFE

Non-PFE

Total’000 haArea of primary forest
Area of secondary forest and degraded primary forest
Area of degraded forest land*--

20 4004200-

Source: ITTO estimate.

along the roadways and urban development. The
main causes of forest degradation are industrial
mining and illegal logging in opened-up areas.
Vulnerability of forests to climate change. Given
its low population density and large forest area,
Gabon is less vulnerable to climate change thanmany other countries in Africa. The mean annual
temperature has increased by 0.6 °C since 1960,
an average rate of 0.14 °C per decade. Model
projections all indicate increases in the frequency of‘hot’ days and nights (McSweeney et al. undated).
Mean annual rainfall has decreased at an averagerate of 3.8 mm per month (2.6%) per decade since1960. All models indicate a considerable decrease in
rainfall over the next 50 years (ibid.).

SFM policy framework
Forest tenure. All forest is owned by the state(Table 3). The 2001 Forest Code divides forests
into two distinct categories. The first includes the
production PFE managed by private concessionaires
and the protection PFE managed directly by thestate. The second, the non-PFE, known as thedomaine rural, includes open-access forests for
hunting, agriculture, mining and the gathering of
NTFPs; sacred forests; and community protectedareas (generally land and forest for which usage
rights are limited to local communities). Rural
communities and forest-dwellers are free to exercise

their customary rights in the domaine rural,
provided they respect all conditions imposed by
the forest administration. The production PFE is
exclusively owned and administered by the state.
Criteria and indicators. Gabon finalized its own
set of PCI in 2006 on the basis of the ATO/ITTO
PCI for the sustainable management of African
natural tropical forests. Since then Gabon has
worked to develop a country-wide certification
system and has harmonized its PCI with thestandards set by the Program for Endorsementof Forest Certification schemes (PEFC). The
orientation of the timber sector towards export
markets, particularly environmentally sensitive
European markets, helps to explain interest incertification.
Forest policy and legislation. Forest and wildlife
management are governed by the Forest Code (Law
16/01), which was enacted in December 2001.
The Code contains two major elements: SFM,
and forest industry development (including theallocation of forest concessions and fiscal aspects). It
also provides for the creation of community forests(Article 156). A 2008 decree (011/PR08) modified
certain elements of the Forest Code, including theabolishment of the monopoly of the state-owned
Société Nationale des Bois du Gabon (SNBG), thecommercialization of okoumé and ozigo and theprocess for the allocation of forest permits. Other

Table 3 Forest area, by tenure
Ownership category
State ownership (national, state orprovincial government)
Other public entities (e.g.
municipalities, villages)
Total public
Owned by local communities and/orIndigenous groups
Private owned by individuals, firms,
other corporate

Total area Of which PFE Notes’000 ha
13 50013 5008300

021 800-13 500---

Production and protection PFE.
Area owned by the state, but with extended user rights(non-PFE, domaine rural).
Could include sacred forests, but their extent is unknown.
Some small plantations, community or privately owned, but nodata are available on their extent.

Source: Government of Gabon (2009).

91

STATUS OF TROPICAL FOREST MANAGEMENT 2011

important legal texts are the 1993 Environment
Law (Law 16/93), the Mining Code (Law 05/2000)
and the land-ownership regime, which dates backto 1963 (Law 15/63). A law approved in 2007 (Law003/2007) governs the management of nationalparks.
Gabon’s forest policy was adopted in May 1996. It
focuses on maximizing the economic contributionof forests while ensuring a lasting resource basethrough the implementation of forest management
programs and national capacity-building. Phase
1 of the policy (1998–2002) focused on the
preparation of forest management plans and theestablishment of sustainable management standards.
Phase 2 (2002–10) focuses on the nationwide
implementation of the plans. The initial aim tohave 4 million hectares under management plansby 2010 was almost achieved; there is a further aim
that 5 million hectares will be under SFM by 2025.
Under the forest policy the government also plans
to have a total of 200 000 hectares of private-sector
and state-managed plantations by 2025.
Institutions involved in forests. The Ministryof Water and Forests (Ministère des Eaux etForêts – MEF) was created in January 2011
with a mission to develop and implement the
government’s policy on fisheries, forests, wildlife
and protected areas (excluding national parks,
which are managed by a separate agency). The
ministry in charge of forests has changed several
times in the last three years, from the Ministry for
Forest Economy, Inland Waters and Fisheries in
Charge of the Environment and National Parks(Ministère de l’Économie Forestière, des Eaux, dela Pêche, Chargé de l’Environnement et des Parc
Nationale), to the Ministry for Forest Economy,
Inland Waters, Fisheries and Aquaculture (Ministèrede l’Economie Forestière, des Eaux, de la Pêche et del’Aquaculture), to the Ministry of Inland Waters,
Forests, Environment and Sustainable Development(Ministère des Eaux et Forêts, de l’Environnement etdu Devéloppement Durable).
MEF has four technical directorates: the General
Directorate of Forestry (Direction Générale desForêts); the General Directorate for Wildlife andProtected Areas (Direction Générale de la Faune
et des Aires Protégées); the General Directorate
for Aquatic Ecosystems (Direction Générale desEcosystèmes Aquatiques); and the General Directorateof Forest Industries, Timber Trade and Value
Addition of Forest Products (Direction Générale des92

Industries, du Commerce du Bois et de la Valorisation
des Produits Forestiers). At time of publication the
Cabinet was considering a restructure of the MEF,
including a possible reduction in the number of
directorates to three.
The Ministry of Environment, Sustainable
Development and Nature Protection, Prevention
and Management of Natural Disasters (Ministèrede l’Environnement, du Développement Durable
et de la Protection de la Nature, Prévention etGestion des Calamités Naturelles) is in charge ofthe development of REDD+. In 2007 the Agency
for National Parks (Agence Nacionale des Parcs
Nationaux – ANPN) was created to manage
protected areas under the Ministry of Tourism andNational Parks.
Besides the technical agencies, a number of otheractors are involved in the development of SFM,
including the state timber enterprise, SNBG, which
is now under MEF and which, until recently, had amonopoly over the export of logs of the two main
species, okoumé and ozigo. There are five research
institutions dealing with forest-related issues andone forest training institute, Ecole Nationale desEaux et Forêt; the later operates under the auspicesof MEF. International development partners (theEuropean Union, the French Development Agency– Agence Française de Développement, and USAID)
are strong supporters of Gabon’s forest reform
agenda, as are international environmental NGOs
such as the Wildlife Conservation Society, WWF
and the World Resources Institute, and national
civil-society organizations such as Brainforest andCroissance Saine. The Government of Gabon isan active member of COMIFAC; it also has anagreement with Global Forest Watch to support themonitoring of illegal logging in the country.a

Status of forest management
Forest for production
In the production PFE, all concessionaires must,within three years of allocation, submit a forest
management plan that includes timber and wildlife
management and socioeconomic studies. It mustalso include consultation between concessionaires,the forest administration and local people. Twotypes of management permits are issued:•

Forest concession under SFM (concession
forestière sous aménagement durable – CFAD),GABON

which has a minimum size of 50 000 hectares
and a maximum size of 600 000 hectares. A
CFAD must have a forest management plan andan industrialization plan and is awarded throughauction.
•

Associated forest permit (permis forestier associé –PFA), which is also awarded by auction but isreserved exclusively for Gabonese nationals. A
PFA can be integrated into an existing CFAD ormanaged on its own as a concession. The
minimum size is 15 000 hectares and the
maximum size is 50 000 hectares.

Under the 2001 Forest Code, forest in the domainrural (non-PFE) may be set aside as community
forests. Community forests should be managed
for timber and NTFPs according to a simplified
forest management plan developed with support
from the DGF. The community must prepare
supply contracts with local processing companies(de Wasseige et al. 2009). Cutting permits are alsoavailable to Gabonese nationals in the non-PFE for
up to 50 trees.
The forest area open to timber harvesting has
been divided into three zones. The first comprises
the coastal plains and is rich in okoumé andcharacterized by relatively easy transport. Mostof this zone has been harvested 1–3 times since
the end of the 19th century (ITTO 2006). The
second zone is less rich in okoumé and access ismore difficult. It has now been almost completely
harvested for the first time (ibid.), facilitated by theestablishment of the Transgabonais, the railway thathas granted access to a large part of the centre andeast of the country. Still less okoumé is found in theforests of the third zone, where the species reaches
the limits of its distribution.
There has been a significant increase in the areaof forest allocated for production since 2005,
including apparently outside the PFE. In March
2009, 48 concession areas were leased over a total
area of 10.3 million hectares and another 212
other permits were also active over an area of about
3 million hectares.a In 2010 an estimated 6.27
million hectares of production forests were active as
industrial timber production areasa, up from 4.55
million hectares in 2002 (ITTO 2006). In 2002
about 1.46 million hectares of forest were coveredby forest management plans (ibid.) but, in March
2009, 4.14 million hectares had been inventoried
and about 3.45 million hectares had fully developed

An example of limba in production forest, Gabon.

and approved management plans.a As of 2009, ten
foreign operators had the lion share of industrial
concessions in Gabon – they were from Europe(France, Italy and Portugal), Asia (China, India andMalaysia) and Lebanon. World Resources Institute(2009) contains a detailed analysis of the forest
concessions in Gabon.
Silviculture and species selection. Timber
harvesting is selective and focuses on high-value
species. At present, only 4–5 m3 is extracted,
on average, per hectare. In the first and second
harvesting zones this is due to previous overcuttingof okoumé; in the third, high transport costs mean
it is only economically viable to harvest the mostvaluable tree species. Table 4 shows the five mostharvested species in the past few years. Ayous,
Testulea gabonensis (izombe), Guibourtia demeusei(kevazingo), Piptadeniastrum africanum (dabéma)and Baillonella toxiperma (moabi) are among a
number of species that are being harvested inincreasingly large volumes. It is anticipated thatthe number of species acceptable to international
markets will continue to increase from the current
20 or so to 35–40 species in coming years.a
The gross standing volume of trees with diameter at
breast height (dbh) greater than 10 cm is estimatedat 250 m3 per hectare in unexploited forest and93

STATUS OF TROPICAL FOREST MANAGEMENT 2011

Table 4 Commonly harvested species for industrial roundwood
Species

Notes

Aucoumea klaineana (okoumé)*
Triplochiton scleroxylon (ayous)
Cyclodiscus gabunensis (okan)Distemonanthus benthamianus (movingui)
Dacryodes buettneri (ozigo)*

Average annual production of about 939 000 m3 (2006–08).
Up to 40 000 m3 produced annually on average (2006–08).
More than 20 000 m3 produced annually.
Nearly 20 000 m3 produced annually.
Production is declining, to less than 15 000 m3 annually.

*
Also listed in ITTO (2006).
Source: Government of Gabon (2009).

220 m3 per hectare in logged-over forest (ITTO2006). The commercial standing volumes are 55 m3
per hectare and 42 m3 per hectare, respectively.
Generally, forest resources can be divided into
two main categories: forests with okoumé andozigo, which regenerate well, and forests without
large amounts of those two species. In its range,
okoumé is the predominant species, with an average
standing volume of about 10 m3 per hectare. A
specific silvicultural system is applied in okoumé
forests, the méthode okoumé, based on favouring
natural regeneration and continuous thinning
until there are 80 stems per hectare with a dbh ofover 70 cm. Gabonese forests regenerate well and,if management prescriptions are followed, they
will maintain their productive value over several
rotations (Drouineau & Nasi 1999).
While the number of hardwood species being
used by industry is increasing, to a large extent
the financial viability of SFM is based on the highquantity and quality of okoumé. The appropriate
silvicultural management of okoumé forest istherefore important for ensuring the continued
abundance of this species because it is the backbone
of Gabon’s forest development. There are signs,
however, that silvicultural treatments are not being
conducted to the full extent needed (de Wasseige etal. 2009).
Planted forest and trees outside the forest.
Planted forests cover about 25 000–30 000 hectares(Government of Gabon 2009; de Wasseige et al.
2009). The government plans to increase the areaof planted state forest to 100 000 hectares and topromote the establishment of an additional 100 000
hectares of private plantations, but planting rates
are presently minimal.a Agro-industrial plantations
include about 11 000 hectares of rubber and somesmall plots of oil palm and coconut (ITTO 2006).
Reforestation and enrichment planting are generally
not undertaken in logged-over forests due to the94

relative ease of natural regeneration (ibid.). Existing
plantations are mainly on former natural-forest sites
and consist primarily of okoumé and, to a limited
extent, Terminalia superba (limba). There are also
some plantations of pines and clonal eucalypts(ibid.).
Forest certification. After more than five years ofintensive work, the Gabonese Pan African Forest
Certification Scheme (Système Panafricain deCertification Forestière) was endorsed for a periodof three years by the PEFC Council in April 2009.
This first-ever approved African national standard
provides buyers with evidence that the timber they
buy was harvested in well-managed forests. In
addition to this overall national approach to forest
certification, as of June 2010 six forest concessions,covering a total area of 1.874 million hectares, werecertified under the FSC (some of them also had
ISO 14001 and Keurhout certificates). A FLEGT
process is under way in Gabon and the Governmentof Gabon has shown interest in developing a VPA
with the European Union.a
Estimate of the area of forest sustainably
managed for production. The entire FSC-certified
forest area of 1.8 million hectares and two
additional forest concessions that are in a process
of forest management certification and have TLTV
certificates covering an area of about 622 000
hectares (de Wasseige et al. 2009) are counted inTable 5 as under SFM.
Timber production and trade. The total standing
timber volume (dbh >10 cm) is estimated at 2.60
billion m3 and the possible sustainable annual
yield of potentially marketable timber species isan estimated 12–15 million m3 (ITTO 2006). An
estimated 3.4 million m3 of industrial logs were
harvested in 2009, similar to the 3.5 million m3
estimated to have been produced in 2004 (ITTO2010). Note that okoumé accounted for nearly
30% of total production.

GABON

Table 5 Management of the production PFE (’000 hectares)
Reporting
year

Total

Available for
harvesting

2005*
2010

10 60010 6006923
10 300***NaturalWithmanagement
plans
2310
3450**,aCertified

1480

25

PlantedWith
management
plans
10

2420

25

10

Sustainably
managed

1480
1870

Total

Certified00

As reported in ITTO (2006).
Comprising only areas with approved management plans in March 2009.

An estimated 1.87 million m3 of logs were exported
in 2009, up from 1.51 million m3 in 2004;
157 000 m3 (roundwood equivalent) were exported
as sawnwood in 2009, up from 124 000 m3 in
2004. The log market for okoumé and ozinga ismainly oriented towards Asia, while dark hardwood
species are often exported to Europe. In 2009
Gabon was the second-largest exporter of tropical
hardwood logs (after Malaysia), Central Africa’s
largest timber producer and the world’s largest
supplier of okoumé. However, the Governmentof Gabon issued a ban on unprocessed timber
exports in January 2010 to encourage value-adding
to timber products. In mid 2008, Gabon had 48
operating sawmill facilities, nine peeling units
and three plywood plants with a potential annual
processing capacity of about 1.7 million m3 oflogs (de Wasseige et al. 2009), about half of total
production.
Non-timber forest products. As in the othercountries of the Congo Basin, many foodstuffs,
including bush meat, roots, fruits, leaves and nuts,
as well as medicinal plants and condiments, arecollected in forests. They are an integral part ofthe subsistence of local people and some, such as
the fruits of Irvingia, lianas of Gnetum, and plants
and nuts of Garcinia species, are also marketedat the national level. Bamboo and fibres such as
Marantaceae (rattan), raphia and the leaves ofBorassus aethiopum (rônier) are important productsthat are also traded regionally. Trade data on NTFPs
were unavailable for this report. Charcoal-making
supplies a small but efficient informal market(ITTO 2006). NTFPs are mentioned in the 2001
Forest Code and forest management plans must
include information on the potential of NTFPs inconcession areas.
Forest carbon. Gibbs et al. (2007) estimatedthe national-level forest biomass carbon stock at3063–4114 MtC, Eggleston et al. (2006) estimatedit at 4742 MtC and FAO (2010) estimated it at2710 MtC. de Wasseige et al. (2009), taking into
account all five carbon pools, estimated the forest
carbon stock at about 4300 MtC. Gabon was oneof the founding members of the Forest Carbon
Partnership Facility and submitted a readinessidea note in 2008; by mid 2010, however, there
had been no progress on a readiness preparation
proposal. As laid out in Government of Gabon(2008), the government’s REDD strategy includes
the pursuit of sound land-use management andintensive agricultural production, including
agroforestry; the strengthening of sustainably
managed production forests; and the conservationof forests through effective protective-areamanagement. The country’s REDD+ potential
lies particularly in the sustainable management of
production and protection forests and conservationof the existing forest carbon stocks. Table 6
summarizes Gabon’s forest carbon potential.

Table 6 Forest carbon potential
Biomass
forestcarbon(MtC)% forestwithcanopycover >60%

Deforestation/
degradation
potential to2030

3063–4114

87+

Enhancement Forest areaof carbonchangesink capacity monitoring
to 2030
capacity++++

Forest/GHG
inventory
capacity++

Importance Engagementof forestin
fire/international
biomassREDD+
burning
processes+++++++ high; ++ medium; + low; estimate of national forest carbon based on Gibbs et al. (2007); estimate of % total forest with canopy cover>60% based on UNEP-WCMC (2010).

95

STATUS OF TROPICAL FOREST MANAGEMENT 2011

Forest for protection

categories I–IV, compared with 570 000 hectares in2005. ITTO and WWF continue their joint workwith the government to manage the Minkébé Forest
Reserve, which together with the Minkébé National
Park makes up an ITTO-supported transboundary
conservation area linked to the Mengame protectedarea in Cameroon.

Soil and water. No forests are set aside specificallyto be managed primarily for the protection of soil
and water.aBiological diversity. Gabon contains more than
6500 plant species, 320 mammal species and 617
bird species. Ten mammals, two birds, one reptile,
three amphibians and 47 plants found in forests
are listed as critically endangered, endangered orvulnerable on the IUCN red list of threatened
species (IUCN 2011). Seven plant species arelisted in CITES Appendix II, none of which is a
hardwood timber species (UNEP-WCMC 2011).
Although Gabon is sparsely populated, some fauna
species are under pressure in some areas due to anincreasing demand for bush meat (ITTO 2006).

Estimate of the area of forest sustainably
managed for protection. The total protection PFE
under SFM is estimated at at least 1.23 million
hectares (Table 7), comprising the ITTO-supported
Minkébé National Park (750 000 hectares) andthe Lopé National Park (484 000 hectares, part ofwhich is savanna). These areas (which were alsoclassified as sustainably managed in 2005) areconsidered to be managed and protected effectively,
although poachers continue to be a threat to theseand other protected areas.

Protective measures in production forests. Underthe 2001 Forest Code, forest management plans
must include measures to protect soil, biodiversity
and water resources in forest concession areas.
Provisions designed to protect wildlife specify thezones where hunting is permitted and the lengthand dates of the hunting season. However, hunting
is a major problem within and in the vicinity offorest concessions.a

Socioeconomic aspects
Economic aspects. National resource use,
including oil extraction, timber harvesting andmining, is the cornerstone of Gabon’s economy (deWasseige et al. 2009). Oil alone generates 42% ofGDP, followed by timber (about 6% of GDPa). The
forest sector is the primary employer in the private
sector with about 13 000 employees, not counting
the informal sector.a The forest service itself
employs about 600 officers and support staff.aExtent of protected areas. Gabon has 13
national parks and a special presidential park,
two hunting zones and wildlife reserves – mostof them forested – covering about 2.9 million
hectares.a In mid 2009, four parks (PlateauxBatéké, Minkébé, Lopé and Moukalaba-Doudou)
had provisional management plans.a A National
Biodiversity Observation Board was createdin 2000 to support the implementation of the
GEF-assisted National Strategy and Action Plan for
Biodiversity (ITTO 2006). With the creation of
the ANPN, the national park network has clearly
been strengthened. More than 2.1 million hectaresof forest are now in reserves classified in IUCN

Livelihood values. Forests are the main sourceof subsistence for Indigenous peoples living in
the forests of Gabon. The law stipulates that local
people have free access to all forests as long as they
possess appropriate customary rights and do notjeopardize the sustainability of the forest products
they collect. Industrial forest management requires
the consent of the local population.a Bush meat andedible fruits such as aiéle, leaves of Gnetum species,and nuts and roots (igname) are of great importancefor forest-dependent local communities, particularly

Table 7 Management of the protection PFE (’000 hectares)
Reportingyear

Protection PFE

Attributed to IUCN
categories I–IV

Allocated for soil
and waterWith management
plans

Sustainably
managed

2005*
2010

2700
2900

570
2191**

0
0

491
1230‡

1090
1230†

*
**
‡
†

96

As reported in ITTO (2006).
UNEP-WCMC (2010).
Provisional management plans.
Pertains to the same two national parks considered under SFM in 2005, but new data (World Resources Institute 2009) suggest aslightly larger park area.

GABON

Pygmies. Bush-meat availability may be threatened
locally because of over-hunting.
Social relations. The community forests allowed
under the 2001 Forest Code replace the former‘family logging’ rights. The Forest Code specifies
that there should be a zone around each production
forest to accommodate the customary rights ofsurrounding communities. While a memorandum(lettre de politique) of forest policy published by thegovernment in May 2004 indicated an intention toincrease the future role of local users in community
forest management, little progress has been madein the last five years to introduce community forest
management.

Summary
Undeniable progress has been made in Gabon
towards SFM. The government continues toimprove its legal and institutional framework toregulate and monitor production forests and toeffectively manage protected areas. The 2001 Forest
Code is complemented by additional regulations
and field-based actions, including an improved
forest monitoring system. Principles, criteria andindicators have been formulated and adapted tothe conditions in Gabon and voluntary forestmanagement certification is well-developed.
Forestry will remain one of the pillars of Gabon’s
economic and social development. Based on
clear policy measures from the government, theprivate sector is a major driver of industrial forest
development and the export of semi-finishedforest products. The government has introduceda system to institutionalize community forestry
as a way of meeting local needs for timber andother forest products, although this system is yet
to be implemented. The country is engaged in
REDD+ processes, and it has a low deforestation
rate. Problems remain, mainly in governance;
for example, there is little civil advocacy and few
participatory processes in the forest sector.

Key points•

Gabon has a large forest resource with arelatively low risk of conversion to other uses.

•

Gabon has an estimated PFE of 13.5 million
hectares (compared with 13.3 million hectares
in 2005), comprising 10.6 million hectares ofnatural production forest (the same as in 2005),
2.90 million hectares of protection forest(compared with 2.70 million hectares in 2005)
and 25 000 hectares of planted forest (the sameas in 2005).
•

An estimated 2.42 million hectares of thenatural production PFE is under SFM,
including 1.87 million hectares of certified
forest. An estimated 1.23 million hectares ofprotection PFE is under SFM.

•

Forest management plans are fully developed in
3.45 million hectares of forest in concessions andwere under preparation for another 6 million
hectares of forest in concessions. High standards
for concession management have been developedon paper, but still need to be fully introduced on
the ground.

•

Gabon has the largest area of certified naturalforests in Africa.

•

The new national park network has great
potential and an increased focus will need to begiven to developing and implementing
long-term management plans.

•Community forests may be created in thedomain rural, but their development has been
insignificant to date.

•

Management for bush meat and other NTFPs isstill largely uncontrolled, even though theseissues must be addressed in forest management
plans.

EndnoteaGovernment of Gabon (2009).

References and other sources
Drouineau, S. & Nasi, R. (1999). L’Aménagement Forestierdu Gabon: Historique, Bilan, Perspectives. CIRAD-Forêt,Montpellier, France.
Eggleston, H., Buendia, L., Miwa, K., Ngara, T. & Tanabe,
T. (eds) (2006). IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse
Gas Inventories. Prepared by the National Greenhouse Gas
Inventories Programme. Institute for Global Environmental
Strategies, Kamakura, Japan.
FAO (2010). Global forest resources assessment 2010
country report: Gabon (available at http://www.fao.org/
forestry/62318/en/).
FSC (2010, website accessed June 2010). FSC Certification
Database (searchable database available at http://info.fsc.
org/PublicCertificateSearch).
Gibbs, H., Brown, S., Niles, J. & Foley, J. (2007). Monitoringand estimating tropical forest carbon stocks: making REDDa reality. Environmental Research Letters 2 (available at http://
iopscience.iop.org/1748-9326/2/4/045023/fulltext).

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