In Gabon, a community’s plea against logging paves the way for a new reserve
MAKOKOU, Gabon — In August 2020, the Massaha community in northeastern Gabon made a formal request to the government to declassify a logging concession allocated to a Chinese company, Transport Bois Négoce International (TBNI). They sought to create a protected area that would be managed by the village in this corner of Ogooué-Ivindo province. TBNI began aggressively logging the forest soon afterward. Now, after months of mixed signals from the government, Massaha’s request has received a positive response. Gabon’s minister for water, forests, the sea and the environment, Lee White, visited Massaha on March 22 and 23. He met with the community and visited the abandoned sites of several ancestral villages, as well as a sacred site on the north bank of the Liboumba River that had been completely destroyed by TBNI. Then, he traveled south of the river to an intact sacred site where, at the foot of a bubinga tree (Guibourtia tessmannii), he witnessed a ceremony invoking the spirits of the villagers’ ancestors. ‘It is not just the forest that speaks to me, but the ancestors as well,’ White said after the ceremony. ‘We came to Massaha to get a better understanding of the community’s request. They are concerned that the forestry activities will destroy their sacred sites, so we came to reassure them.’ ‘We came to Massaha to understand the demands of the population, worried about logging that will destroy the sacred sites, so we came to reassure them’ — Lee White (right), Gabon’s Minister of the…This article was originally published on Times of Nation
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