Gabon is home to some of the world’s richest forests – it protects hundreds of endemic species, stores millions of tonnes of carbon and provides many local communities with their basic needs and livelihoods.
We began working in Gabon in 2012 in collaboration with national civil society organisations to help design the provisions governing benefit sharing, community forestry.
Supporting civil society in law reform. We work with local partners to increase civil society’s access to legal information, while building their legal capacity and supporting organisations' participation in law and policy reforms. We also focus on making these laws more accessible to the communities that depend on forests for their livelihoods, raising awareness and training on their rights to forest land.
Promoting the rights of Indigenous peoples and local communities. Indigenous peoples and local communities are the best stewards of the world’s tropical forests. In Gabon, we strive to secure the land tenure rights of Indigenous peoples and local communities, which leads to increased engagement in the protection of and care for their lands. We work to support and develop guidance on the effective implementation of benefit-sharing agreements, ensuring revenues from forest activities are distributed to local communities in a way that is fair and equitable
Promoting gender mainstreaming in forest governance processes and initiatives. We work with civil society to raise awareness on the importance of gender-sensitive approaches to forest law reforms and all related advocacy initiatives. We support forest communities to understand and open the way for increased participation of women in the governance of their community forests, fostering inclusivity in sustainable forest management processes.
ClientEarth has developed a database of main policies and laws applicable in Gabon concerning forest governance, natural resources and community rights.
In Gabon, the conservation of forests is deeply rooted into communities’ traditional way of life. And no conservation can be attained without the inclusion and ownership of local forest-dependent communities.Patricia Iacob, ClientEarth law and policy advisor
