Lake Oguemoué

Reclaiming ancestral land for community forests in Gabon

Spearheaded by our partners, Organisation Ecologique des Lacs et de l’Ogooué (OELO) and local sustainable fishing co-ops, the ‘Our Forest, Our Future’ project aims to create community forests around lake Oguemoué, Gabon.

 

Irresponsible logging operators

In recent history, ancestral forests in the Bas Ogooué Lake Region, Gabon have been encompassed in logging concessions leased to foreign companies. As we have seen before in our partnerships, the profit and greed from some of these companies has come at an unjust cost for the local communities of Oguemoué.

Losing forest

The local communities of Oguemoué have borne witness to the degradation of their forest, their livelihoods and lost free access and control of their forest resources, at the hands of an irresponsible foreign company.

As Oguemoué lost the largest of their trees and animal sightings were becoming fewer and farther between, it was clear that forest exploitation at this rate will leave little for future generations.

Exciting sightings

Due to the hard work of OELO and the local communities, there are already positive signs of success in the region. This dry season, record numbers of elephants and hippopotamus were recorded making use of the area’s lakes and rivers. Where 10 years ago you may have been fortunate to count a handful of hippos on the river leading to the lake, this year their numbers reached 30.

Mother and calf African Elephants sighted in the future community forest © Cyrille Mvele

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