Nearly 90% of Gabon’s land is covered by forests. In the EU, only Sweden has a larger forest area than Gabon. At the end of 2009, Gabon banned the export of logs. The government made this decision because almost the entire timber industry ignored the Gabonese forest law passed by parliament in 2001.
The long-term planning of the Gabonese government is both creative and exemplary. In order to increase job opportunities and economic output by ten times, a special economic zone specializing in wood processing was established 20 kilometers away from the capital Libreville. All of Gabon’s commercial forests are forced to fully produce and expand production through new plantations.
Today, nearly 100 wood factories are converting waste hardwood into activated carbon, while softer wood waste is sent to the first particleboard factory in the region. The industry has created more than 10,000 direct jobs for Gabonese young people.
In addition, the government decided in 2018 that by 2022, the International Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification will become a mandatory certification for the timber industry. Crucially, Gabon now absorbs about 100 million tons of carbon dioxide per year and is one of the countries with the highest scores of high forest and low forest logging (HFLD) among all tropical countries.
Therefore, Gabon has created the foundation of a successful industrial ecosystem for alternative uses of wood. In 2020, the system was hailed by the Financial Times as the best timber product "special economic zone" in Africa.
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