Gabon’s Nature Bond Weathers the Political Storm

While the Bongo dynasty may be gone, the debt-for-nature swap, so far at least, has remained. Indeed, one of the principal jobs of White & Case, the lawyers representing the Gabonese government in the transaction, had been to fashion a structure robust enough to survive just these sorts of political ruptures. The law firm, which dealt mainly with Gabon’s environment ministry, had to convey to its client in clear terms precisely what Gabon was signing up to and the consequences of reneging on the terms of the deal — specifically on missing its conservation obligations. “This deal in Gabon, and probably all other debt-for-nature swaps in general, requires lawyers doing some elements of non-typical lawyer work,” argues Olga Fedosova, partner at White & Case, who led the project.

FT