Gabon unveils $180m plan to protect Congo forests

November 19, 2025

Gabon has taken a major step toward safeguarding its rich Congo Basin rainforests by signing a landmark conservation agreement with an international coalition of donors. The initiative, known as “Gabon Infini,” aims to protect 34,000 square kilometers (13,000 square miles) of biodiverse tropical forest—one of the world’s most critical carbon sinks.

Under the deal, the program will receive $94 million in donor funding from organizations such as the Bezos Earth Fund and the Global Environment Facility, combined with $86 million in government investment over the next decade. The financing structure follows the increasingly popular Project Finance for Permanence (PFP) model, which links long-term conservation funding to measurable government policy commitments.

This approach is gaining traction worldwide. Brazil recently launched a similar PFP agreement covering nearly 243,000 square kilometers of Amazon rainforest, while Kenya and Namibia are preparing their own versions.

Gabon plays a vital ecological role in the Congo Basin. Roughly 90% of the country remains blanketed by tropical rainforest, sheltering more than half of the planet’s remaining African forest elephants and about 25% of the world’s western lowland gorillas. The Gabon Infini program aims to expand the nation’s protected areas, strengthen anti-poaching operations—especially against elephant poaching—and create new opportunities in eco-tourism.

The initiative builds on Gabon’s 2023 debt-for-nature swap, which refinanced $500 million in national debt and redirected part of the savings toward coastal conservation. However, concerns about Gabon’s economic stability have resurfaced. A draft 2026 budget approved in September calls for nearly doubling public spending, with credit rating agencies warning that the country’s debt-to-GDP ratio could rise to almost 90%, up from 73% at the end of the previous year.

Despite the financial pressures, national leaders and conservation experts describe the new agreement as a turning point. Former minister Maurice Ntossui Allogo, who has led development of the plan, called the Letter of Intent a “decisive milestone” in Gabon’s environmental strategy.

According to Ryan Demmy Bidwell of The Nature Conservancy—one of the key partners in the project—Gabon’s unique value lies in its vast, intact forests. He noted that Gabon Infini will help expand protected coverage from roughly 15% to 30% of the nation’s rainforest.

“We hope Gabon becomes a blueprint for conservation across the Congo Basin and other parts of Africa,” Bidwell said.