Sibang Arboretum: How Libreville's lungs are under threat

By Firmain Eric Mbadinga

Land-use planning in Gabon of the 1930s entailed making the country's ecological treasure trove of forests the centrepiece of any development blueprint.

Libreville, the capital city, then had four native forests central to combining urban utility with aesthetics and a growing settlement's environmental needs.

Decades later, three of these forests have been relegated to statistical tombstones. Where there were once green canopies, rows of houses and other urban developments stand as inheritors of this legacy of depredation.

Libreville's last surviving forest, the Sibang Arboretum, also seems to live on borrowed time. As Gabon's green warriors fight to stave off what they fear is impending doom, the city's appetite for ecological destruction appears insatiable.

Conflicting priorities

Environmental activist François Boussamba paints a bleak future for Libreville if Sibang were to disappear like the other three forests around which the city came up.

"The birds that used to nest here can't find a place to rest. Wildlife would once thrive in these woods. These animals no longer have a place to hide. We may wake up someday and realise there is no Sibang," he tells TRT Afrika.

Sibang's 16-hectare span is home to around 170 endemic and some endangered plant species representing Gabon's rich biodiversity.

This urban forest's primary ecological contribution is its role in carbon sequestration. The diverse tree species, including ancient baobabs, act as carbon sinks, absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and storing it in their biomass.

The arboretum is also a rooting ground for Okoumé, Gabon's emblematic tree species, and the unique Amorphophallus plant.

In a city like Libreville, home to 50% of the country's population, the arboretum's existence since 1954 has been a bulwark against deforestation.

Rampant exploitation

Christopher Abaga, a carpenter and lumberjack, often visits the arboretum to collect what he calls dead wood.

"We know it's forbidden to cut trees in this forest. So, we wait for any opportunity to use old, degraded trees that fall on their own," he tells TRT Afrika.

Charlie Abessolo, who lives nearby, is also a frequent visitor. "These barks that I have just collected are useful for treating toothaches. My sister has a severe toothache, so I went into the forest this morning to collect some," he says.

Activist Boussamba and his compatriots work relentlessly to prevent further exploitation of Libreville's last and most critical patch of indigenous forest.

"We have started several on-site projects with a two-fold objective — to get the younger generation to join our initiative alongside raising general awareness about the need to save this site," he says.

"This arboretum is undoubtedly the continent's largest forest education centre, located in the heart of Africa's last great forest basin."

Conservation struggle

Alpha Marah, who heads the forest protection department of the environmental NGO La Lowé, has been at the forefront of the drive to stop the looting and destruction of this ecosystem for three years.

"The importance of conserving Sibang outweighs the domestic or economic needs of those destroying it. We need to treat this as urgent," Marah tells TRT Afrika.

"For the moment, we are involved in consultancy, training and expertise missions across the country. We look for donors who can support Gabon's effort to preserve its forests. We are working to ensure that the diversity of wood species is developed for future generations."

Since Gabon's independence in 1960, the arboretum has been managed by the Institut de Recherches Agronomiques et Forestières and the Institute of de Pharmacopoeia and Traditional Medicine, both of which function under the ministry of scientific research.

Henri Bourobou, director of the institute of traditional medicine, believes that without an alternative to timber resources, it would be difficult to halt felling of trees at Sibang.

"Sibang is surrounded by neighbourhoods whose residents exploit it. That is difficult to escape," Bourobou tells TRT Afrika.

Loss of forest cover

Mongabay, an international environmental protection organisation, reports that Gabon loses more than 10,000 hectares of forest annually to uncontrolled logging.

Ghislain Moussavou of the wildlife protection department of Gabon's ministry of water and forests finds merit in collaborations with local NGOs and private partners to preserve green spans such as the Sibang Arboretum.

Since 2002, Gabon has devoted 11% of its territory to environmental protection and increased the number of national parks from seven to twenty.

According to various studies, almost 20% of Gabon's plant species exist nowhere else in the world. Some of these rare plants are counted among the 170 tree species in the Sibang Arboretum.

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