Gabon
Gabon announces creation of 13 national parks 

afrol News, 9 September - Gabon's President, El Hadj Omar Bongo, has announced the creation of 13 new national parks in his country. These are to cover three million hectares, which represents 10 percent of the country's surface area. Environmentalists praise the "historic decision" as the country is set to invest in conservation and ecotourism.

President Bongo announced the creation of the 13 national park during his stay at the World Environment Summit in Johannesburg, South Africa. The decision was based on years of political preparations and consultations with neighbour countries and environmental organisations.

Representative of the country's main ecosystems, from marine and coastal habitats to mountain and lowlands forests, the new national parks include five already existing protected areas (Lopé, Minkebe, Monts Doudou, Moukalaba, and Petit-Loango) and eight new sites which had never been classified in the past. 

Gabon - almost at the size of Italy - has only 1.2 million inhabitants. The country is host to some of the least exploited rain forests and coastal sanctuaries of the African continent. Biodiversity thus is very high and the diverse wildlife includes African "bestsellers" such as gorillas and forest elephants.

While Gabon's principal natural resource, oil, is running out, the government has had to choose between developing two sources of foreign exchange in the future; the wood industry or the tourism industry. While logging will remain a major industry in Gabon, President Bongo now however has set strict limits for the country's deforestation trends by inviting investments in ecotourism.

The potential of ecotourism development in Gabon is high while still poorly exploited: areas like Gamba for instance provide views of elephants and gorillas roaming the dunes while buffaloes stroll the beach and sea turtles ride the waves. Or for the more adventurous, the Minkebe Forest Reserve offers the largest roadless forest wilderness in Africa which is home to 16 primate species, including lowland gorillas and chimpanzees. 

Environmental organisations hail President Bongo's choice as a "historic decision" that also "offers a unique opportunity for diversifying the country's economy." The Gabonese President had accepted a joint proposal by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and the World Conservation Society (WCS) for the creation of the national park system. 

Forests of the Congo Basin
The Gabonese decision to dramatically increase its protected area aligns with the recently launched Congo Basin Forest Partnership. Six Central African countries signed an agreement in Yaoundé in March 1999, which outlined increased regional efforts to conserve the unique and diverse rain forests of the region. 

Environmental organisations have engaged heavily in the fight to reverse the trends of deforestation and forest fragmentation, which threatened to exterminate sound rain forest habitats altogether. WWF, IUCN and other groups are already contributing competence and resources to national agencies to aid the implementation of conservation and ecotourism projects. 

- As part of its long-term commitment to conservation in the Congo Basin, WWF will continue to contribute to the Congo Basin Forest Partnership and extend its conservation programmes in collaboration with other NGOs and programmes active in the sub-region, the conservation group today noted in a statement. 

This contribution, according to Dr Chris Hails, WWF International Programme Director, would focus on "support for field-based activities that promote the effective management of a representative network of twenty-six protected areas and surrounding zones in eleven priority landscapes covering six countries throughout Central Africa." 

The group hailed President Bongo's announcement, saying the decision was "a rare occurrence in the history of conservation in Africa," which unveiled "the President's vision regarding the future of the country." WWF further noted the project would help diversifying Gabon's oil-dependent economy and would foster "poverty alleviation, as human needs are considered."

Sources: Based on WWF and afrol archives

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