The Gabonese Initiative for Achieving Agricultural Outcomes with Engaged Citizenry (Gabonaise des Réalisations Agricoles et des Initiatives des Nationaux Engagés, GRAINE) is part of the government’s ambition to boost agriculture’s contribution to GDP from 5% to 20% by 2025, and, in the process, reduce the country’s dependence on food imports. Objectives Launched in December 2014, GRAINE is designed to promote entrepreneurship in agriculture by helping small farmers to form cooperatives for the production of cash and long-cycle crops by providing start-up financing, equipment and training as well as buying their produce. The five-year project is being developed as a public-private partnership through SOTRADER, a joint

Policy measures taken by successive governments to introduce sustainable forestry management and to develop the downstream timber industry are widely expected to offer long-term environmental and economic benefits. However, in the short term they have delivered a blow to the forestry industry, which is still feeling the effects, particularly the moratorium in place since 2010 on the export of raw materials. “The industry was not prepared. Small and medium-sized international and local players were almost wiped out,” said Hassan Chahal, former director of project development at Green Forests Gabon, one of several players to exit the sector following the ban. Unemployment and the cost of