Organized at the initiative of the Gabonese and French Heads of State, Ali Bongo Ondimba and Emmanuel Macron, this event will be held until Thursday in the Gabonese capital with the aim of improving the conservation of forests in the world and contributing to protecting the climate and species in a context of climate change.

The promotion of "more sustainable sectors" for products derived from wood or agroforestry and the search for financing will notably be on the agenda of the summit, which also intends to promote scientific cooperation between the three major forest basins in the world: the Amazonian forest, the Congo Basin and the tropical forests of Southeast Asia.

The summit "will not aim to adopt new political declarations", warns the organization, which stresses that it wants to implement the objectives set by the Paris Climate Agreement (2015) and the COP15 in Montreal on biodiversity (2022).

For the past week, a poster campaign announcing the holding of the One Forest Summit has been spreading on the main arteries of the Gabonese capital, with panels crossed out with the slogan "One Forest, One Breath" ("One forest, one breath").

Among the heads of state, French President Emmanuel Macron is expected in Libreville on Wednesday evening.

Denis Sassou-Nguesso (Congo-Brazzaville), Faustin Archange Touadéra (Central African Republic), Mahamat Idriss Déby Itno (Chad) or Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo (Equatorial Guinea) will also make the trip.

Note, however, the absence of leaders from Latin America.

"Alarm bell"

From Africa to Brazil via Southeast Asia, these forests are everywhere threatened by agricultural and industrial overexploitation, including logging, oil and mining.

Trees in the "Bois des Géants" national reserve in Libreville, February 28, 2023 © LUDOVIC MARIN / AFP

Behind the Amazon, the Congo Basin is the second largest forest area and ecological lung on the planet, with its 220 million hectares of forests spread across several countries, including the Democratic Republic of Congo, Congo-Brazzaville and Gabon. .

This summit, which will focus on the forests of the Congo Basin according to the organizers, is "more than important to sound the alarm" on the management of forest ecosystems, warns Bonaventure Sonké, professor at the University of Yaoundé and head of the science and biology department at the Normal School.

The forest is the richest terrestrial habitat in terms of species and biodiversity.

But, according to the United Nations, ten million hectares of forests were destroyed each year between 2015 and 2020.

“About a third of the species in tropical Africa are threatened with extinction. If we continue at this rate, it will increase. In conservation, you have to think that human beings need these resources, but it is You also have to think about making them permanent," adds Mr. Sonké.

However, to preserve "you have to know the resource", he intimates.

"We do not know enough about these Congo Basin forests because they are not sufficiently studied (...) There are no substantial financial resources and we have fewer and fewer people trained to do so", unlike to the Amazonian forest "because we have put the means there", he asserts.

- Election year -

Located in the heart of the Central African rainforest and 88% covered by forest, Gabon, which is hosting this summit, is the first African state to have been paid for the protection of its forests thanks to carbon credits.

A tool that was at the heart of the COP27 discussions on climate.

A forest ranger patrols the "Bois des Géants" national reserve in Libreville, February 28, 2023 © LUDOVIC MARIN / AFP

"We absorb around 100 million tonnes of net CO2 per year. Every second, Gabon captures 3 tonnes of CO2. We are on the right track towards a sustainable economy", assured AFP Lee White, Gabonese Minister of Water and forests.

Gabon, where a third of the population lived below the poverty line in 2017, says it wants to combine industrial development and sustainable management of its natural resources to get out of its dependence on oil.

By 2030, the country has committed to sanctuary 30% of its territory in protected areas (sea, land and fresh water).

If the organization of such a summit is considered relevant, the arrival of Emmanuel Macron - at the start of a tour in Central Africa - is on the other hand decried by part of the political opposition and civil society while the country is about to elect a new president this year.

"The real concern is the timing because we are in the middle of an election year (...) The debate on the climate is no longer even addressed. What we remember is the arrival of Emmanuel Macron who comes to dub his candidate", regrets Marc Ona Essangui, Gabonese pro-democracy activist and defender of the environment.

© 2023 AFP