Gabon

Congo in the Crosshairs: Oil and Gas Expansion Threats to Climate, Forests, and Communities

10 November 2022

A new comprehensive mapping and analysis by RFUK and Earth Insight shows that oil and gas expansion in the Congo Basin is a rapidly accelerating existential threat to the global climate, and to the world’s second largest rainforest – including the tens of millions of people who live there. There is still time for African … Read more

Gabon’s Massaha community sacred forest being logged despite government assurances for it to become a community protected area

5 July 2022

Massaha community’s sacred forest being logged despite government assurances for it to become Gabon’s first-ever community protected area. Logging has resumed in northeastern Gabon in the local community of Massaha’s ancestral forest of unique bio-cultural diversity, despite a commitment by the Forest Ministry to suspend all timber operations in the area and to support the … Read more

New alerts map shows vital role of forest communities in tackling illegal logging

4 July 2022

RFUK and its local partners in Cameroon, the Republic of Congo, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Ghana, Liberia, Ivory Coast and Peru have launched a webmap that includes thousands of illegal alerts sent by local community monitors using the ForestLink system. While satellite forest monitoring has transformed our ability to detect forest loss, ForestLink … Read more

Massaha update: TBNI Logging company told to cease operations, paving the way for a new community reserve

25 April 2022

In a positive development, Gabon’s Forest Minister has ordered an immediate end to the logging of Massaha’s ancestral forest, by the company Transport Bois Négoce International (TBNI), paving the way for the community to create its own protected area. Following a two-year struggle by the community, as well as international pressure from RFUK and others, … Read more

Protected Areas and Indigenous Rights: A submission to the UN Special Rapporteur

20 April 2022

In response to a call for comments to inform the Special Rapporteur’s report to the UN General Assembly at its 77th session, RFUK has put together a brief highlighting how, despite much lip service to the contrary, conventional conservation and climate change programmes continue to wreak havoc on indigenous peoples and other forest-dependent communities.

Press Release: Over 360 organisations say “No to Nature Based Solutions!”

15 March 2022

Ahead of a vital UN moment for biodiversity, “nature-based solutions” are once again being erroneously heralded as the solution – and NGOs are pushing back. As more and more corporations and governments tout “nature-based solutions” as the means to fight the climate and biodiversity crises, over 360 organisations have come together to launch a statement exposing … Read more

Massaha’s fight to protect their ancestral forests in Gabon

8 March 2022

RFUK, Forest Peoples Programme and Greenpeace Africa have today written to the Gabonese Minister of Water, Forests, Oceans, Environment, Climate Change and Land-use Planning, Lee White, to call for an immediate halt to illegal logging in the village of Massaha’s ancestral forests, and to support its claim to establish a community-managed protected area. The community’s … Read more

BRAINFOREST

13 November 2021

Founded in 1998, Brainforest works on forest and environmental issues with a dual focus on field support and policy monitoring. Its philosophy revolves around the links between environmental and social problems. Brainforest emphasises the participation of local populations (including indigenous communities) in the recognition of their rights and the promotion of community development. News Sorry … Read more

Roads to Ruin: The Emerging Impacts of Infrastructure Development in Congo Basin forests

26 October 2021

A report by RFUK reveals the growing extent, and impact, of transport and energy infrastructure development in the Congo Basin – which is on its way to becoming a major driver of deforestation in the world’s second largest rainforest. The eight case studies featured in this report show that, while certain projects may bring some … Read more

Payment for non-performance: Gabon receives $17 million in REDD payments despite increasing deforestation

2 July 2021

The Central African Forest Initiative (CAFI) has just awarded an initial payment of $17 million to Gabon, hailing its achievement in reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in 2016-17 from the baseline levels of the previous decade. However this claim is contradicted by data from the FAO and Global Forest Watch which shows primary … Read more