At Gabon talks, a debate on who pays to save world’s forests

By WANJOHI KABUKURU
Associated Press

MOMBASA, Kenya (AP) — A summit on how to protect the world’s largest forests underway in Gabon is set to be dominated by the issue of who pays for the protection and reforesting of lands that are home to some of the world’s most diverse species and contribute to limiting planet-warming emissions. French president Emmanuel Macron and officials and environment ministers from around the world are attending the One Forest Summit this week in the capital Libreville to discuss maintaining the world’s major rainforests. Some countries with vast swaths of dense forest that can suck up carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere say that protecting the forests needs to be profitable.