InFocus
"A group of nine dwarves lived here, and one day a dwarf dropped his ax in the water," says Ladislas Désiré Ndembet, standing on the shore of Lac Blue, or Blue Lake, in Gabon's ... Read more »
Greening of Gabon, October 2011
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Credit: Daniel GlickGabon's Lac Bleu. According to local lore, animist spirits abound in the natural world in watercourses like Lac Bleu as well as in the chimpanzees, gorillas, forest elephants and hippopotamuses that share the land with Gabons human residents. The lake is about 300 miles inland from Gabon's capital, Libreville. -
Credit: Daniel GlickThe shoreline of the lake is lined with offerings to the the spirits: plastic cups filled with Fanta orange and Coke; orange slices, some wildflowers. -
Credit: Daniel GlickLadislas Désiré Ndembet is president of Muyissy Environment, a tiny, provincial organization that may represent the future of conservation in Gabon. He formed Muyissi in 2008 to respond to huge changes in Gabons environmental landscape ... -
Credit: Daniel Glick... such as this. Bulldozers have razed a bald spot on one edge of Lac Bleu for an unfinished visitors center, a stark dirt scar inviting erosion that will eventually steal the colors from the legendary waters of the lake. -
Credit: Daniel GlickJean-Christophe Mbinna, secretary general of Muyissy. The organization is trying to supply a stronger local voice to encourage economic development that doesn't leave dead forests, disappearing species and fouled water in its wake. Having local voices carrying the conservation message is crucial in places like Gabon, with enduring wounds from the French colonial era and Gabons own recent history of corruption. -
Credit: WEFGabon's president, Ali Bongo Ondimba. His father, the former president, created 13 national parks and set aside 11 percent of Gabon as nature reserves in 2002. Today, the national parks remain largely ideas on paper, with little protection from poaching, virtually no infrastructure for ecotourism, and conflicts with ethnic groups who use the park lands to hunt, fish, gather medicinal plants and cut wood. -
Credit: Daniel GlickRaw logs on truck. Bongo Ondimba has vowed increased support for the parks, and instituted a policy not to export raw timber even as he supports free trade zones that provide incentives for projects like palm oil plantations that require clearing large forest tracts.
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