As Gabon’s new forests minister, UK conservationist aims to enjoy by example

DAKAR (Reuters) – Gabon hopes to lead by example in stamping out illegal logging belonging to the world’s tropical hardwoods, a prominent British conservationist said after being named the central African country’s new forests minister.

Lee White, who ran the U.S.-based Wildlife Conservation Society’s Gabon program for approximately two decades, was appointed late on Monday after his predecessor was fired for a scandal in which tonnes of illegally felled rare kevazingo wood went missing.

“In forestry we’ve been encountering a bit of a turbulent time,” White – who’s got dual British-Gabonese citizenship – told Reuters during an interview. “One of the initial priorities is that straight.”

Gabon’s President Ali Bongo has cast himself as being a definite environmental crusader, delighting conservation groups by banning raw wood exports, enlarging protected areas and demarcating 13 new nature since he took power when the death of his father, Omar Bongo, in ’09.

Despite those efforts the country remains a target to your illicit wildlife trade and illegal loggers. Tackling the destruction of forests can be found by environmentalists as crucial in preventing runaway global warming.

White, most recently head of Gabon’s National Parks Agency, said criminal activity in Gabon’s forests emitted 15 million tonnes of co2 fractional laser a year.

“Our company is trying to lead by example. Our world don’t mitigate the impacts of climatic change, it’s travelling to result in untold strife, so we don’t obtain much time,” he stated.

The president has promised to punish anyone implicated in your disappearance of a cache of 392 containers of kevazingo, that had been seized within the port of Owendo in February and March. “It’s been a wake-up call,” White said.

Two Chinese nationals are usually now being held, which is the head of customs, Dieudonne Lewamouo, and authorities have recovered 200 containers.

Although illegal logging is ravaging the forests of West and equatorial Africa, almost all of it driven by Chinese demand, the region’s governments have rarely taken action.

There is demand in Asia for wood on the kevazingo tree, which sometimes take 500 years to grow for its full height of 40 meters (130 feet). While forestry can be described as major industry for Gabon, the kevazingo remains safe and secure by law.

White said Gabon require all logging companies that should be certified by your Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) – one universally recognized certification scheme – by 2022.

Bongo, whose family has been in power for 50 years, suffered a stroke in October while abroad, coming back home in March.

Secrecy surrounding his health during his five-month absence has fueled instability with a country where declining oil revenues and widespread poverty have dented his popularity.