Gabon
An equatorial nation that turned rainforest into national parks
Gabon is an oil-rich, sparsely populated country on the equator where rainforest covers nearly ninety percent of the land, making it one of the greenest nations on earth. In the early 2000s it set aside a tenth of its territory as a network of thirteen national parks, betting that forest elephants, lowland gorillas, and surf-riding hippos could anchor a conservation economy alongside crude oil. With a small population concentrated in coastal Libreville and a comparatively high income, Gabon has long stood apart from many of its neighbors in stability and ambition, though that calm was shaken by a 2023 coup.
A short Atlantic coastline of lagoons and estuaries gives way inland to forested hills and low plateaus drained by the Ogooue River, the country's great waterway. Equatorial rainforest dominates, broken by occasional savanna, and the terrain rises to modest highlands - Mont Bengoue in the northeast is among the highest points at roughly 1,070 meters. Loango National Park on the coast is famous for elephants and buffalo wandering its beaches, while the Ivindo basin holds spectacular waterfalls. Offshore and onshore oil fields, plus manganese and timber, underpin the economy.
Bantu peoples settled the region long before French traders and missionaries arrived, and Libreville was founded in part as a settlement for freed slaves. As a piece of French Equatorial Africa, Gabon became independent in 1960 and was ruled for more than four decades by Omar Bongo, then by his son Ali Bongo until the military seized power in 2023. French remains the official language across a mosaic of Bantu groups, the Fang most prominent among them. Gabon now seeks to diversify beyond declining oil through timber processing, ecotourism, and its outsized role in protecting the Congo Basin forest.