GABON
Unity, Work, Justice.
/ The colors of the flag of the Gabon find their justification in the geography of the country: the green symbolizes forests;the yellow represents the line of the Equator and the sunshine,
Whereas the blue translates the Atlantic Ocean.
Political mode: REPUBLIC
Head of State: El Hadj Omar BONGO ONDIMBA
Currency: FRANCS CFA
Official language: FRENCH
Surface: 268.000 km2
Population: 1,5 million
Capital: LIBREVILLE
Climax: Iboundji mount, 1.575 m
Geographique presentation
Situated in the heart of central Africa, crossed by Ecuador, Gabon has a surface of 267,667 km2, which is approximately half of France. It opens on the West of the Atlantic Ocean by a maritime facade of 800 km of coasts with beaches of sand. The rest of the territory is surrounded in the north by Equatorial Guinea and Republic of Cameroon, in the south and in the east by the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Its climate is of equatorial type, being characterized by important precipitation, going of 2 500 mm to certain regions, with a heat varying 22 ° in 32 °. We distinguish four seasons there:
2 dry seasons:
- In May-September (big dry season)
- December-January. (Small dry season).
2 rainy seasons:
- In September-December (small rainy season)
- February-May (big rainy season).
A Young and Urban population
Gabon is one of the least populated countries of Africa.
Its population is estimated at about 1 500.000 inhabitants, meeting itself in Libreville, the capital and cities having important economic activities like Port-Gentil (economic capital), Franceville or Lambaréné.
The Gabonese population consists of about fifty ethnic groups with six main groups.
Fangs (35,5 %) is the most numerous, Myenes, Zebies, Punus, Tékés, kotas.
96,2 % of the Gabonese are Christian (65,2 % of Catholics, 18,8 % of Protestants, 12,1 % of believers of independent Churches). The followers of the traditional religions are 2,9 % and the Moslems 0,8 %.
Gabonese people are quiet young and today persons having between 15 and 60 years represent 3/5 of the population. This ratio is increasing, in 2001 the rate of fertility is 3,7 children by woman .
This population is characterized by a very weak density, and a birth rate (27,42 ‰) and a mortality (17,34 ‰) Relatively raised
The growth of cities is spectacular: Libreville gathers appreciatively the half of the population that is to say 420.000 inhabitants, then come Port-Gentil and Franceville with respectively 164.000 and 75.500 inhabitants.
The Population growth is 2,5 % a year and in 2002 the life expectation for men was 52 years and 55 years for women.
The urban population was estimated at 83% and the estimations for 2015 are at 86%.
Libreville
Still a Wild hearth.
With a density of about 4,5 inhabitants by km ² it remains that 80 % of the territory is covered by thickens forest equatorial.
Certain regions are practically uninhabited
(Crystal mountains, swamps of the delta of Ogooué).
This imbalance is harmful because whole zones of this richly endowed country remain so unexploited.
National park of minkébé
The gabonese ground is on the other hand very rich in minerals and natural resources. Little inhabited regions, roads and little numerous passable tracks and the climate, pull a weak pressure on the nature. The fauna and of the flaure of the Gabon is very rich, it is visible in fourteen various national parks of the country.
Figures speak itself: 64.000 elephants, 20.000 gorillas, and 35.000 chimpanzees, 680 sorts of birds,
3.000 whales with bumps, 320 sorts of orchids and very numerous other sorts of flowers. Gabon knows as well a great varieties of maritime animals, the natural park of Mayumba ,park situated in the western South of the country was declared first site of laying of tortoises lutes.
Very rare zoological sorts to the world such the gorilla of plain, the monkey with tail of sun, the mandrill, the elephant of forest, the bongo, the picatharte.
Indeed, Gabon has a varied relief where dominate trays and hills cut by numerous streams. We find mountainous cliffs and sometimes swampy plains there. Besides natural resources of the forest, basements of the Gabon contain important wealth: the petroleum and the manganese. The mine fertility is the diamond, the gold, the marble.
But the mining inventory of the Gabon is not finished yet. New wealth hide can be in this thick and dense physical environment.
The Gabonese forest covers approximately 22 million hectares or about 85 % of the surface of the country. It indeed conceals several varieties of trees (more than 80 000) of which the famous okoumé, the mahogany, the ozigo, the kévazingo, the sipo, the alep.... About 40 % of the forested surface remains still unexploited. The oil and the wood constitute the main resources of Gabon and explain largely the best gross national product (GNP) per capita of continental Africa, that is 3120 dollars in 2002.
Gabon is divided into 9 provinces:
- Estuaire
- Haut Ogooué ;
- Moyen-Ogooué ;
- Ngounié ;
- Nyanga ;
- Ogooué-Ivindo ;
- Ogooué-Lolo ;
- Ogooué-Maritime ;
- Woleu Ntem.
Each province got its particularities,
The Estuaire is located in the cost and gather the two capitals: Libreville and Port-Gentil.
Near one of the biggest delta of fresh water of the African continent,
the Ogooué, Lambaréné is a quiet town crossed by numerous lakes and rivers.
Lambaréné, from the province of the Moyen-Ogooué, is all over the world known through the hospital of the famous Doctor Albert SCHWEIZER and Possess lakes of a surprising beauty.
Evaro lakes (Lambaréné)
Haut-Oogoué with its canyons, its trays and its bridge of liana,
Bridge of Liana
Oogoué Ivendo with its imperial falls of Ivendo,
Oogoué Lolo with its caves,
Ngounie with the climatic center of still not exploited Eteke, and Mbigou, who gave it’s name to the famous stone sculptured for souvenirs and ornamental objects, the church of the Holy Mission Anne built for the very famous architect Eiffel,
Stones of Mbigou
The Woleu-Ntem, the capital of the traditional basketwork make of the Gabon a country for the very varied tourist wealth.