Forest Certification in Gabon

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 With the exception of a certificate that was awarded and then withdrawn, to date the FSC has yet to certify any forests, while the Dutch-based Keurhout system has certified three companies, whose land areas total 1.5 million ha.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. forest certification in gabon yale school of forestry & environmental studies 445