2024-09-26 15:00:20
Has the kevazingo, the king tree of the forests of Central Africa and very popular in Asia, become an indicator of Gabon’s forestry activity on the global scale of environmental virtue? The exploitation of this precious and threatened species was officially banned in 2018 after a resounding scandal during the presidency of Ali Bongo Ondimba. It has just been authorized again by the putschists of August 30, 2023 gathered within the Committee for the Transition and Restoration of Institutions (CTRI), wishing to relaunch all forestry activity, a potential growth relay for an economy largely dependent on declining oil activity.
“Kevazingogate”, as the Gabonese press calls it, broke out in 2019. At the end of February and the beginning of March of that year, customs discovered 5,000 m3 of this rare wood (worth around 7 million euros) to the port of Owendo, in Libreville, in two warehouses belonging to Chinese companies. Part of the merchandise already loaded into containers was stamped by the Ministry of Water and Forests, indicating a cargo of okoumé, a common species whose exploitation is authorized.
The case rebounded a few weeks later. Around a hundred containers, out of the approximately 350 placed under seal by the courts, mysteriously disappeared into the wild. Heads had fallen at the highest level of the State, including those of Vice-President Pierre Claver Maganga Moussavou and Minister of Forests Guy-Bertrand Mapangou, both sacked. An influential Chinese entrepreneur suspected of being the mastermind of this illegal trade had not been worried, however.
“The Chinese businessmen present in this sector of activity are traders, not foresters. They think they can buy everything, civil servants and certifications”says a foreign consultant familiar with this activity and established for many years in Central Africa: “They do not hesitate to resort to physical intimidation to achieve their ends. » In the wake of the scandal, the Gabonese authorities banned the exploitation of this wood, sacred for some, simple raw material for making temple portals or tea tables for others.
“Quagmires”
The affair came at a bad time for Ali Bongo’s regime. Where his father, Omar Bongo Ondimba, indestructible president from 1967 until his death in 2009, relied on the oil industry, his son and successor sincerely strived to place his country on the map of actors respectful of the environment in general and in particular the forests, which cover 80% of its territory. A pioneer in Central Africa, Gabon banned the export of raw logs of all species in 2010. It has since required that professionals in the sector carry out initial processing before exporting the wood.
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