The investments made by the Asian companies, in
particular, the Chinese companies in the forestry sector in Gabon over the past
fifteen years, appear each day more and more important. These companies are
indeed specialized in the buyout of multinationals, permit or to Gabonese
capital and companies in the business of “farming” with forest concessions of
national operators. In this paper, we are
going to analyze the point of the level of their contribution in the sector
Gabonese wood by segment business (operations and forest management, timber
processing and export and marketing of logs and derivatives) and the degree of
their involvement in the implementation of the laws and regulations (code
Forester, labor code and code of the environment) in force in Gabon. It is
clear that Chinese-owned companies have become major players in the industry
Gabonese wood. Thus, they are the first operators of the Gabonese wood with a
total area of 2.84.483 ha or 25.11% of the forest area operating in that
country; in addition, they are, with their established wood industries 15.29% in
Gabon, the third group of operators in this segment of activity and also are
the top exporters of Gabonese wood with an annual average of logs over 1
million m3 (representing more than 70% of the wood Gabonese
exported). However, this leadership is characterized by large gaps and
weaknesses in the implementation of the Gabonese regulation.
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