By Big3 Africa News Desk
Gabon has entered a new era of conservation ambition after its government and a coalition of international donors signed a major agreement to safeguard 34,000 square kilometres of the country’s Congo Basin rainforests.
According to Reuters, the initiative, known as “Gabon Infini,” blends $94 million from global partners, including the Global Environment Facility and the Bezos Earth Fund, with $86 million in domestic financing over the next decade.
The funding package will support the creation of new national parks, strengthen anti-poaching operations targeting the country’s iconic forest elephants, and expand eco-tourism opportunities.
At the heart of the programme is the Project Finance for Permanence (PFP) model, a conservation financing mechanism that releases funds only when governments meet agreed-upon policy reforms.
Kenya is also positioning itself at the forefront of this new wave of long-term conservation finance, as it works toward finalizing its PFP framework.
While details of the final package are still being negotiated, Kenya’s PFP is designed to secure sustained, multi-year funding for protected areas including savannahs, montane forests, coastal habitats, and community-managed conservancies that form the backbone of the country’s biodiversity economy.
Unlike Gabon’s largely intact rainforest block, Kenya’s ecosystems sit at the intersection of pastoralist cultures, wildlife migration routes, and some of Africa’s fastest-growing human settlements
If successfully concluded, Kenya’s PFP will place the country alongside Gabon, Namibia, and Brazil in a growing global coalition experimenting with new models of climate and biodiversity finance.
