Gabon’s recent debt-for-nature swap is the first in Africa. The Gabonese government bought back almost $500 million (£392m) of foreign debt using a loan from the Bank of America and pledged about $75 million (£59m) for marine conservation over the next 15 years. 

The Nature Conservancy, which began working in Gabon in 2013 with a focus on freshwater,  facilitated the deal, as it has done with others over recent years. Earlier this year, Ecuador completed the world’s largest debt-for-nature deal, a transaction that allowed the nation to exchange $1.6 billion of dollar denominated bonds for a new $656 million loan tied to protecting habitats of the Galapagos Islands.

“It’s the first big deal in Africa, and the first time a big American bank has got involved,” Paul Steele, chief economist at the UK’s International Institute for Environment and Development, told Positive News. “It’s not some little, niche product anymore – it’s going mainstream. We have an environment and nature crisis, and we have a debt crisis – we can resolve both with one tool.”