Gabon has signed a landmark agreement with a coalition of international donors to protect 34,000 square kilometres of its Congo Basin rainforests, a region that covers nearly 90% of the country and serves as a vital ecological stronghold.
The initiative, known as Gabon Infini, will mobilise $94 million from donors including the Global Environment Facility and the Bezos Earth Fund, alongside $86 million in government funding over the next decade.
Using a Project Finance for Permanence model, the plan ties the release of funds to specific government policy reforms, a structure increasingly adopted globally, with Brazil announcing a similar arrangement on Monday and other African countries such as Kenya and Namibia preparing comparable deals.
The programme aims to establish new national parks, strengthen protections against elephant poaching and expand eco-tourism, building on a recent debt-for-nature swap that refinanced $500 million in loans for conservation purposes. The initiative comes at a time of heightened concern over Gabon’s fiscal trajectory, with its 2026 draft budget signalling a sharp rise in spending and a projected debt-to-GDP ratio nearing 90%. Officials, including former minister Maurice Ntossui Allogo, have hailed the agreement as a pivotal milestone for conservation. Environmental partners such as The Nature Conservancy underline Gabon’s global significance, noting that the project will expand protected forest coverage from 15% to 30%, with hopes it will serve as a model for the wider Congo Basin and the continent.