The Bas Ogooué is Gabon’s largest Ramsar Site: a wetland of international importance with over 1,370,000 hectares of flooded forest, savannas, lakes and waterways. It provides important habitat for African forest elephants, giant ground pangolins, lowland gorillas, chimpanzees, Central African slender-snouted crocodile, African manatee and other Congo Basin Forest species.
OELO’s goal is to improve biodiversity conservation by strengthening community management of natural resources on lake Oguemoué. They do this through two initiatives ‘Our Lake, Our Future’ and ‘Our Forest, Our Future’ respectively geared towards community fisheries and forestry initiatives. Tusk currently supports OELO’s Fisheries Management Plan which supports communities cooperatives and associations that conserve lake and forest biodiversity and resources for future generations. Future plans include the expansion of the Oguemoué model into other lakes in the region.