According to Climate Home News, Gabon’s former environment minister Lee White and three officials have been placed under house arrest after a complaint from a forestry union, citing the State media agency Agence Gabonese de Presse (AGP). The AGP is controlled by the new regime, and cites a public prosecutor in Gabon, who has announced that the three have been accused of various crimes relating to the auctioning of forestry permits and the alleged establishment of a bank account to collect hundreds of thousands of dollars from fines and wood sales. White was reportedly prominent in UN climate negotiations, often positioned as a leader in the defence of the forests of the Congo basin. He spearheaded the first African debt for nature swap, and under his leadership finance has flowed to Gabon for rainforest protection, through the Central African Forest Initiative.
