Client: Government of Gabon

Year Completed: 2009

 

Gabon’s declining oil revenues have sparked a move to diversify the economy. IBI worked with the government on how to make the mining sector and related infrastructure a catalyst for broader economic growth, without disturbing Gabon’s pristine primary forest, waterways and coastal waters, sources of immense biodiversity.

 

Our approach was to use spatial analysis of numerous physical, social, and economic data sets, combined with economic and environmental expertise, to identify and map potential growth corridors in which mining, agriculture, forestry, fisheries, and tourism would benefit from infrastructure investments and feed off of each other. This analysis was combined with a thorough diagnostic assessment of the institutional and legal frameworks governing the mining sector. We provided concrete recommendations, in the form of a strategy, for unleashing the country’s growth potential, while safeguarding its biodiversity and other natural resources.