Gabon Plans $700 Million Debt Swap to Fund Marine Conservation
- Nature Conservancy to buy Gabonese eurobonds, lend to Gabon
- Similar deals have taken place in Belize, Barbados, Seychelles
A shark swims in a marine protected area in the Galapagos Islands, Ecuador, on Saturday, Jan. 15, 2022.
Photographer: Johis Alarcon/BloombergGabon is in talks with The Nature Conservancy to reorganize as much as $700 million of its eurobond debt to fund marine conservation in what may be the biggest transaction of its kind.
TNC, a US-based conservation non-profit, will buy the bonds and then sell debt to Gabon at a lower interest rate and with a longer maturity, Lee White, the central African nation’s environment minister, said in an interview this week. The differential will be used to fund marine conservation at around $5 million a year for about 15 years and a fund will be created to finance programs after that date, he said. A final agreement is expected in the first quarter of next year.