The World Economic Forum (private international lobbying organization) reported, in a recently made public study, that Gabon is the second most forested country on the planet with 88% of its area covered by trees, just after Suriname ( 97%). These forests in the Central African country sequester 140 million tons of carbon each year.
According to this organization, Gabon has successfully established a balance between the carbon emitted and the carbon absorbed. This is how since 2010, its Nkok Special Economic Zone, specializing in wood processing, has been implementing best practices and adhering to the strictest international standards, achieving its carbon-neutral industrialization target for the years 2019. , 2020 and 2021. This is a first for an industrial area in Africa.
The same source also informed that Gabon is in the ranking of 7 countries in the world (Bhutan, Suriname, Panama, Guyana, Gabon, Madagascar and Niue), which are already net zero emissions. In other words, these countries have balanced the carbon they emit with the carbon they absorb. Bhutan, for example, is 72% forested. Its trees absorb 9 million tons of carbon dioxide annually while contributing less than 0.0001% to global emissions.
The World Economic Forum also specified that, in the case of Gabon, the country sequesters the equivalent of 140 million tons of carbon each year, while emitting only about thirty. Thus, with a difference of more than 100 million tons of carbon each year, Gabon can sell its carbon credits to companies that need them.
The country has just obtained the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) carbon credit certification for the period 2010-2018, recalls Le Nouveau Gabon.
Moctar REMAINS / VivAfrik
