1,900 square mile reserve has been established in Gabon, Africa. The action is not without controversy, in that an existing reserve was redrawn to include more valuable forest habitat, but that covers a smaller extent. The success of the reserve will depend upon maintaining the integrity of the boundaries from this point forth, and not relegating the surrounding substantial unprotected forests to cut and run industrial forestry. The deal includes a slight redrawing of the boundaries of Gabon's Lope, Reserve, subtracting 400 square miles of land on the southeastern flank that holds the richest stands of valuable okoum , trees, and adding about 200 square miles of previously unprotected terrain that includes remote upland forests that have only rarely, if ever, felt the footfall of a humans.
Several biologists working in the region say the net loss of land is worth it.
The area opened to logging had been farmed less than 200 years ago and so is relatively recent growth. In contrast, they say, the newly protected area, which was to have been cut by Malaysian and French companies, is a priceless reservoir of biological riches that is thought to have been essentially undisturbed for the last 10,000 years. The Lope, Reserve has also been designated as the first candidate for national park status in Gabon, a country that prospered through oil in the past, but has been in economic decline recently and has seen timber as the source of future wealth. Gabon straddles the Equator and rises from Africa's west coast in a river-laced patchwork of savannah, deep forest and mountains. Lee J. T. White, a zoologist at the Wildlife Conservation Society in the Bronx, who has studied Gabonese chimpanzees and rainbow-faced mandrills, said the deal was a major victory for African wildlife.