The forestry sector is Gabon’s second source of foreign
exchange after oil. There is rising anger among trade unionists and
environmentalists after a wood company, Rain Forest Management (RFM), sacked 38
fixed-term workers last month in Mbomao, Ogooué-Ivindo province. RFM, a
Gabonese wood processing company with Malaysian investment, is one of several
exploiting the rich natural forests in Gabon.
The workers had been locked in a lengthy dispute over
working conditions, lack of contacts and legal working hours, among other
complaints. The dismissals were linked to worker protests over poor working
conditions, unsanitary housing infested with rats, cockroaches and snakes,
demands for legal working hours and payment of wages on time.
According to the Entente Syndicale des Travailleurs du Gabon
(ENSYTG) union, RFM refused to negotiate with them and workers who were
planning to take part in trade union meetings were threatened and intimidated. After
numerous threats and charges of intimidation, as the employees were returning
to work, RFM called on police to evict them from their company-supplied
dormitories, claiming that the workers had violated company rules.
Léon Mébiame Evoung, president of ENSYTG, told IPS that the
workers were simply calling on the company to respect basic rights and provide
a pharmacy and an infirmary that should be managed by competent Gabonese health
professionals. RFM failed to meet any of these demands, said the union
official. Instead, it decided to execute its earlier threat by firing all
protesting workers.
Marc Ona Essangui, founder of the environmental NGO
Brainforest and president of Environment Gabon, a network of NGOs, told IPS in
an online interview that he could not accept such “gross suppression” of
workers’ rights. “I strongly protest against the dismissal of these workers,
which is clearly linked to their strike action,” he insisted. Such anti-union
activities, he added, violate International Labour Office (ILO) conventions 87
and 98 (on freedom of association and the right to organise and bargain
collectively, respectively).
Forests Monitor, an NGO that supports forest-dependent people,
“although Gabon’s forests are often described as being relatively undamaged and
offering great potential for long-term sustainable timber production, it is
clear that industrial forestry within the current policy framework threatens
their future integrity and the country’s biodiversity.”
The NGO notes that “production levels are already
considerably above the official sustainable production estimates and are set to
continue rising”, meaning that “the contribution which forestry sector revenues
make to the country’s population as a whole and to people living in the
locality of forestry operations is questionable.”
On its website, the World Resources Institute (WRI) notes
that “nowhere is the pressure (on resources) more intense than in Gabon, a
nation with 80 percent of its territory covered by dense tropical forest. With
resource use demands spiralling in recent years, Gabon urgently needs better
forest management planning if the government is to achieve its goal of becoming
an emerging economy while preserving the country’s natural resources.” A WRI
report titled ‘A First Look at Logging in Gabon’, compiled by seven Gabonese
environmental organisations, “Gabon has vast forest resources, but rapid growth
of logging activity may threaten those resources. If managed properly, Gabon’s
forests could offer long-term revenues without compromising the ecosystems’
natural functions.”
However, the authors continued, “(we) found information
about forest development unreliable, inconsistent, and very difficult to
obtain. We believe that more public information will promote accountability and
transparency and favour the implementation of commitments made to manage and
protect the world’s forests, which would significantly slow forest degradation
around the world.”
RFM’s woodworking factory lies at the centre of three
national parks – Lope, Crystal Mountain, and Ivindo – and to the east of
Libreville. The park area is a small fraction of the land marked for
development on a WRI map. The wood used by RFM is locally sourced. Established
in 2008, RFM produces windows and doors for the Gabonese domestic market. It
exports semi-finished products to Asia, Europe and the Middle East. The company
employs more than 700 workers, with a Gabonese majority.
Building and Wood Workers’ International (BWINT), which is
circulating an online petition to help the strikers’ return to their jobs.
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