Gabon: Emmanuel Macron in Libreville to participate in the One Forest Summit
French President Emmanuel Macron alongside his Gabonese counterpart Ali Bongo upon his arrival in Libreville on March 1, 2023. AFP - LUDOVIC MARIN
Text by: RFI Follow
3 mins
This Wednesday, March 1, the One Forest Summit opened in Libreville.
A high-level international meeting dedicated to the protection of tropical forests and in particular those of the Congo Basin which is located in Central Africa, straddling six countries.
French President Emmanuel Macron will be present with several of his African counterparts.
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After a day of exchanges and debates between environmental actors, members of civil society and certain ministers, several heads of state and government are now expected for this second day and for a round table.
Emmanuel Macron begins on this occasion a tour in Central Africa.
The Congolese Denis Sassou-Nguesso, the Gabonese Ali Bongo obviously, but also the Angolan Joao Lourenço and the Central African Faustin-Archange Touadéra will also be present at this summit.
Emmanuel Macron's plane landed around 7 p.m. on Wednesday evening March 1 in Libreville, the first leg of his tour which will then take him to Angola, Congo-Brazzaville and the DRC.
He was welcomed at the presidential palace by his counterpart Ali Bongo with, on the program, a dinner between the two heads of state, details our special correspondent in Libreville,
Paulina Zidi
.
Visit to the rainforest
This first meeting is finally the only bilateral exchange between the two presidents planned during this two-day official visit, since this Thursday, President Macron is going with the Gabonese Minister of the Environment, Lee White, to the heart of this tropical forest before a speech in front of the French community of Libreville.
The Amazon is beginning to die because of climate change and it is the forests of Central Africa which are more resistant, which continue to sequester CO2.
But there are early warning signs in our forests.
So now is the time to act.
Lee White, Gabonese Minister of the Environment
Paulina Zidi
The French president will thus go to the Arboretum Raponda Walker, reports our special correspondent on the spot,
Valérie Gas
.
"
In front, you have the emblematic tree of our country, which is Okoumé
".
The commissioner general of the Scientific and Technological Research Center of Gabon, Alfred Ngomanda, awaits Emmanuel Macron firmly.
On a wooden structure raised between the trees to serve as a classroom, in the middle of this preserved forest very close to Libreville where the only rumor is that of insects and birds, it is he who has the role of explaining the forest and its challenges to Emmanuel Macron: “
This forest stores 40 billion tons of CO2 in their trees.
So it contributes enormously to climate regulation
.
.
Find funding
Emmanuel Macron wants
the One Forest Summit to be an implementation summit
, Alfred Ngomanda hopes it will be one of solutions, especially for local populations.
“
Allowing these populations to live in these territories without degrading them is really the challenge to help preserve these forests
,” he says
.
►Also read: Tropical forests: what to expect from the "One Forest Summit" which opens in Gabon?
And according to him, the signal to populations and States goes through funding.
“
It's abnormal that we can sell a liter of fuel for one euro and that we cannot buy a ton of CO2 for 50 dollars.
Who should set the price?
I think that will be discussed during the One Forest Summit
”
.
This is one of the challenges of the One Forest Summit: finding the means to remunerate the efforts of the countries of the Congo Basin to protect a forest which plays the role of the lungs of the world.
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Emmanuel Macron
Gabon
Environment