Background

The company’s operations are located in two separate WWF priority landscapes TRIDOM and GAMBA. Spread over Cameroon, the Republic of Congo and Gabon, TRIDOM gets its name from the initials of Dja, Odzala and Minkébé - three famous protected areas, each in a different country. The huge TRIDOM forest covers 178,000 km² or 10% of the whole Congo Basin rainforest. The area is a haven for large mammals: it shelters up to 25,000 elephants and 40,000 gorillas and chimpanzees, as well as a host of other species, including buffaloes, giant forest hogs, sitatunga, pythons, and monkeys.

The Gamba Landscape is situated in southwest Gabon and covers 53,290km² (roughly 1.5 times the size of Yellowstone National Park). WWF works mainly in the northern part, within the 11,000km² Gamba Complex of Protected Areas. The area harbours astonishing wildlife, including elephants, gorillas, chimpanzees and many other species.

The forest management units (FMUs) managed by GWI-BSG jointly are located in several locations:
BSG operates one Concession (CFAD) which is comprised of two FMUs: The first, ‘Otouma’ is 125,000 hectares, whilst the second, ‘Kango’ is 67,000 hectares.

GWI operates one Concession (CFAD) of approximately 138,000 hectares, and also two FMUs that have management plans in development (CPEAT), of 140,000 and 160,000 hectares. The FMUS are also home to local communities. They go there to collect medicinal plants and other non-timber forest products for subsistence use.

Scope of Work

Working together with WWF Gabon, GWI-BSG has committed to improving the forest conditions and reducing threats to biodiversity in its FMUs, while generating new jobs for local communities. Specifically, the company is aiming to:

• Improve forest management and achieve FSC certification of its forest management units, covering over 427,000 hectares of secondary tropical rainforest.
• It is committed to improve and increase the protection of forest-dependent animal species in the logging concession. Key species in these forests are Pangolin, Chimpanzees and Gorillas.
• Furthermore the corporation is engaged to strengthen livelihood development through generating local employment.