On March 2, 2023, Ali Bongo Ondimba closed the One Forest Summit with a tweet stating that the world has realized that the climate and biodiversity are in peril without forests and it’s everyone’s responsibility to take action. The two-day summit was attended by representatives from over 20 countries, members of the scientific community, local communities, and business leaders to discuss the preservation of tropical forests, including the Congo Basin forest. After the joint management of the event by Emmanuel Macron and the Gabonese president, the participants released their conclusions and plans in the Libreville Plan. The flagship decision of the document was the creation of a €100 million fund to finance a mechanism to pay countries conserving forests in certificates of biodiversity that could be exchanged with sovereign states or the private sector. This mechanism will address the deficient carbon market that has deteriorated into a voluntary market that devalues carbon pricing with greenwashing, Emmanuel Macron explained. One of the primary goals presented at the start of the event was the development of more sustainable supply chains for products sold at higher prices on international markets that will benefit local communities.
The Gabonese government has been a leader in green finance for nearly a decade, and in January 2023, it announced plans to sell 90 million tons of carbon credits. In June 2021, it also became the first country paid for the protection of its forests, receiving 17 million dollars from the Central African Forest Initiative of Norway, which is backed by a $150 million grant. Alongside green finance, Libreville is also pursuing sustainable forestry exploitation, which it hopes to combine to realize benefits while maintaining the environment. However, there are concerns about the sustainability of these methods in the long term due to the potential deleterious consequences for local populations and biodiversity when companies explore forests to collect specific tree species. Nevertheless, the Gabonese government hopes to achieve leadership in environmental protection and sustainable management of its forests, even as it continues to rely on oil for sixty percent of its budget revenues.
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Nominés dans la catégorie finance de l’Option, récompensant l’excellence et l’innovation dans le domaine financier.
Cécile Goubet, 43 ans, est une experte dans le domaine de la finance durable. Titulaire d'un Master 2 en économie...
