The show offers an opportunity to engage with wood, woodworking and forestry professionals, FSC’s participation was to increase brand awareness and showcase the importance of sustainable forest management in the Congo Basin.
“Gabon is an important country for us in the Congo Basin it is developing and expanding rapidly. It is important for us to meet and talk to the companies that are exhibiting here and present what FSC is doing in the sub-region” said Mathieu Auger-Schwartzenberg, Director of the FSC Congo Basin Office
He added that it was important for FSC to exhibit at the first edition of show. A lot of contacts with new players in the Gabonese forestry supply chain, mainly from India, have been taken and a growing interest to FSC certification has been felt. There are some important opportunities of growth for FSC in Gabon, and FSC Congo Basin Office started, since 2017, to approach these new companies and stakeholders, such as National Agency of National Parks, to see how FSC certification is achievable at a larger scale than now, in Gabon.
Gabon enjoys a strategic geographic position in Central Africa, acting as a gateway to a regional market of more than 250 million consumers.