{"id":5813,"date":"2019-10-08T09:48:03","date_gmt":"2019-10-08T06:48:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/africasustainabilitymatters.com\/?p=5813"},"modified":"2026-01-11T05:30:35","modified_gmt":"2026-01-11T05:30:35","slug":"dilemma-in-gabons-forest-conservation-and-economic-interests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/2019\/10\/08\/dilemma-in-gabons-forest-conservation-and-economic-interests\/","title":{"rendered":"Dilemma In Gabon’s Forest Conservation And Economic Interests"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Agencies<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lush green canopy\nstretches over the Akanda National Park — one of the many forest jewels that\nGabon is fighting to conserve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But those living in poverty\nin the shadow of the park are ambiguous.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They see the forests less as\na global treasure to be cosseted and more as a resource that they need to use\nto survive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A bank employee, making his\narduous daily commute to the nearby capital Libreville, glanced up at the\nimmense trees almost with hostility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I’ve lived here for two\nyears and I can tell you that I have no electricity and no water,” said\nthe man, dressed in a business suit as he walked along an earthen road to get\nto work.
\n 
\nSource of pride and misery<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Gabon’s forests are a\nsource of national pride, but you can’t be proud and live without a roof over\nyour head.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last week, Norway announced a\n$150-million (Sh15 billion) contract with Gabon to reduce its carbon emissions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The initiative comes under\nthe Central African Forest Initiative (CAFI), a UN-launched scheme aimed at\nencouraging Western help for cash-strapped forest custodians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the fight against climate\nchange spurred little enthusiasm among local people who spoke to AFP.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A retired cook, Luc\nBoudzanga, said he had no pension. To get by, he had to grow food on land where\nsuch activities are banned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We eat thanks to the\nforest,” Boudzanga says before heading off along the edge of the park,\nmachete in hand. “Otherwise, how would we survive?”\u2026Read more>><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Agencies The lush green canopy stretches over the Akanda National Park — one of the many forest jewels that Gabon is fighting to conserve. But those living in poverty in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":5814,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[101],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5813","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5813","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5813"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5813\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5814"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5813"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5813"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5813"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}