Gabon is home to one of the world’s largest intact rainforests, but in today’s financial markets its trees are worth more dead than alive. Now, the country wants to cash in on its efforts by selling carbon credits. The forests of Gabon absorb and store millions of tons of carbon dioxide every year. For the past decade, the country has carefully protected them, but now, its oil revenue is dwindling and the government’s looking for ways to maximize its revenue from the trees. The multi-pronged Grande Mayumba project will operate in logging, cattle farming, and ecotourism. A joint venture with an Italian company sustainably harvests woods in Gabon, which means harvesting without exhausting the forest’s resources and enabling it to regenerate.
