Data Base to Put Gabon's Forest in Cyberspace
11/26/97
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Headline: Data Base to Put Gabon's Forest in Cyberspace
Source: Agence France-Presse
Date: 11/26/97
Byline: Michel Martin
Copyright 1997 by Agence France-Presse
LIBREVILLE, Nov 26 (AFP) - Gabon has acquired a detailed data
base of its forest, the richest in central Africa but a small
producer compared to the Asian giants, that will soon go on Internet
for global consultation.
The inventory took two years to complete, but the final step
will come in January when it is put into cyberspace to make this key
export more competitive and accessible to businessmen -- and
scientists -- anywhere in the world.
Though Gabon is only half the size of France, tucked onto the
west central coast of Africa, 85 percent of its territory is covered
in lush forest more diversified than those of its neighbors thanks
to a more varied terrain.
Until the development of mineral exploitation after independence
in August 1960, the economy was virtually dependent on the timber
industry.
The Gabonese forest's major assets are two local species, okoume
and ozigo, tropical soft "veneer" woods -- of which Gabon is the
top world producer -- that are used primarily in the production of
high-quality plywood.
The new data base has compiled 600 color pictures -- 1/125,000
in size -- to allow viewers to quickly scan tree varieties, terrain,
geology, topsoil, roadways through the forest, population density,
local administrative restrictions and information concerning logging
permits issued by the country's ministry of water and forests --
without ever leaving the office.
"It is the biggest inventory made of this forest since
independence, the first in color and the first accessible to
everyone and at a moderate price, thanks to Internet, where it can
be consulted as of January 1998," said Denys Frere, the architect of
the data base and the director of a forestry group here.
The different marketable tree species, about 150 out of a total
400, are listed one by one in a color guide illustrating the tree's
wood, its leaf, its fruit and a cross-section magnified by 10 times.
Technical and mechanical characteristics of each wood, such as
stress level or degree of water compression, are classified
according to worldwide industry standards.
The information is practical -- and often vital -- for
architects, cabinet makers, woodworkers and carpenters elsewhere in
the world trying to verify the quality and authenticity of their
lumber.
Another part of the data base deals solely with legislation
concerning Gabon's timber industry, as well as fishing, the sea and
other areas under the ministry of water and forests, and the
labyrinthian complications of the Gabonese tax system -- a boon for
foreign investors.
The data base also outlines Gabon's customs regulations, as well
as those throughout the Central Africa Economic and Monetary
Community.
One chapter deals only with wood -- tree concentrations, volume
of wood stocks, foreign destinations for exports, the addresses of
sellers and buyers of Gabonese timber and the distribution of export
quotas.
Though it has a small production, the Gabonese forest has a lot
at stake in the timber business since it has a near monopoly on the
production of undressed Okoume and Ozigo.
Gabon in 1996 produced 2.5 million cubic meters (87.5 million
cubic feet), against five million for Malaysia, 50 million for
Indonesia and 60 million produced by France.
"However the production in southeast Asia is dropping (Malaysia
having in the past produced up to 60 million cubic meters) and the
recent huge fires that affected this region can only stimulate
interest (here) among the Asians," said Frere.
Gabon's timber industry has been given an edge over that of some
of its neighbors, notably the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC),
formerly Zaire, and the Congo Republic, the Central African Republic
and Angola where civil strife has forced production to drop.
Gabonese President Omar Bongo, in a recent letter to Frere,
praised the data base and said the country's authorities had decided
to buy it as a valuable commercial tool, while asking Frere's firm
to "continue to complete and update it in the future."