Challenges for forest conservation in Gabon, Central Africa

The Gabonese government is eager to consider alternative strategies to augment economic development, including promotion of an ecotourism industry. This commitment is evidenced by the government's recent designation of 13 new national parks that comprise over a tenth of the country's land area. Efforts to develop ecotourism face substantial challenges, however, including the high profitability of exploitative land uses like logging, the illegal encroachment of loggers and hunters into nature reserves, political instability in the surrounding region, and limited infrastructure for tourism. Nevertheless, these and other efforts to promote more-sustainable development should be strongly supported, as Gabonese forests have among the highest levels of species diversity and endemism in tropical Africa and are likely to play a critical future role in biodiversity conservation.