A good student in reducing, in recent years, more than 5 million tons of carbon dioxide, Gabon continues to make progress in the fight once morest climate change and the preservation of the environment. Encouraging results that require rewards from Gabon’s partners in this area. This is the meaning to be given to the meeting, on February 15, 2024 at the Prime Minister’s Office, between the Prime Minister of the Transition, Raymond Ndong Sima and a delegation from the Central African Forest Initiative (CAFI) which was accompanied for the occasion by the Permanent Secretary of the National Climate Council, Davy Onomori.

Discussions with the Head of Government took stock of this Gabon-CAFI partnership and considered its prospects. Created in 2015 by Central African states and donors from several countries, CAFI has supported Gabon for many years. Several agreements have emerged, the last one currently in force runs until 2025 or even beyond. This is a results-based partnership agreement.

As part of this ambitious and long-term partnership, Gabon was the first country in Africa to receive financial payments representing more than 180 million US dollars, or a little more than 109 billion CFA francs, including 48 million dollars the equivalent of more than 29 billion CFA francs made available to Gabon for these efforts to preserve the ecosystem. The rest of the financing will be mobilized subject to the reduction of Gabon’s emissions due to deforestation and forest degradation. there are 8 years left, we will look at the state of emissions and depending on the evolution, we will discuss compensation. It is an international mechanism that exists for all countries under United Nations Convention 4 on climate change..” indicates a member of the delegation.

Following the events that occurred on August 30 in Gabon and the day following the takeover of power by the military, the CAFI delegation wished to speak with the new authorities in order to ensure consistency between the objectives of the transition and CAFI financing. The Government through its leader has confirmed Gabon’s commitment to the good management of its forests and its interest in continuing the partnership and mobilizing the 151 billion payments for the results of carbon dioxide emissions.

Raymond Ndong Sima during the discussions underlined the importance of putting people at the heart of sustainable development and ensuring that the Gabonese populations fully enjoy the benefits generated by forests. To ensure the achievement of this key objective, the government will soon communicate its emissions results in order to mobilize funding and programmatic priorities following the organization of an interministerial committee.

CAFI funds finance projects in different sectors, such as the environment, forestry, agriculture, national education and higher education; hence the importance of a multi-sector approach both for the management and for the implementation of these.

Source: primature