The "
One Forest Summit
", a summit dedicated to the protection of tropical forests, opens this Wednesday, March 1 in Libreville, Gabon with the aim of finding "
concrete solutions
" to combine sustainable management of tropical forests and economic development of countries. foresters.
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, March 2 in the Gabonese capital with the aim of improving the conservation of forests in the world and contribute to the protection of the climate and species in a context of climate change.
Read alsoMore than a third of the already very degraded Amazonian forest
Amazonia, Congo, Southeast Asia
The promotion of "
more sustainable sectors
" for products derived from wood or agroforestry and the search for funding 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 signs crossed out with the slogan "
One Forest, One Breath
" ("
One forest, one breath
") .
Poster of the “One Forest” summit, in Libreville, Gabon, on February 28, 2023. LUDOVIC MARIN / AFP
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Forests under threat
Among the heads of state, French President Emmanuel Macron is expected in Libreville this 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.
The Amazon rainforest in Anavilhanas National Park, Brazil.
Marcio Isensee e Sá / stock.adobe.com
From Africa to Brazil via Southeast Asia, these forests are everywhere threatened by agricultural and industrial overexploitation, including logging, oil and mining.
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. .
Read alsoGabon wants to promote the preservation of its humid equatorial forests
Congo Basin forests
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.
Congo Basin rainforest.
gudkovandrey / stock.adobe.com
“
About a third of species in tropical Africa are threatened with extinction.
If we continue at this rate, it will increase.
In preservation, you have to think that human beings need these resources, but you also have to think about sustaining them
,” adds Bonaventure Sonké.
However, to preserve “
you have to know the resource
”, he intimates.
"
We don't know enough about these Congo Basin forests because they haven't been studied enough (...) There are no substantial financial resources and we have fewer and fewer people trained to do so", contrary
to to the Amazonian forest "
because we have put the means there
", he asserts.
Read alsoIn Gabon, on the trail of forest elephants
Gabon and the “carbon credit”
Located in the heart of the Central African rainforest and 88% covered by forest, Gabon, which hosts 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.
“
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 beginning 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 not even discussed anymore.
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.