Geography of Gabon

thumb|300px|Gabon map of Köppen climate classification.

Gabon is a country in Central Africa, lying along the Atlantic Ocean, just south of the Bight of Biafra.

Area and borders

; Area:

:* Total: 267,668 km²

:**country rank in the world: 76th/77th

:* Land: 257,670 km²

:* Water: 10,000 km²

; Area comparative

:* Australia comparative: approximately larger than Victoria

:* Canada comparative: approximately the size of Newfoundland and Labrador

:* United Kingdom comparative: approximately larger than the United Kingdom

:* United States comparative: slightly smaller than Colorado

:* EU comparative: approximately smaller than Italy

Gabon has a total of 3,261 km of international boundaries. It borders Equatorial Guinea (335 km) and Cameroon (349 km) to the north and the Republic of the Congo (2,567 km) to the east and south. Gabon lies on the equator.

; Maritime claims:

:* Territorial sea:

:* Contiguous zone:

:* Exclusive economic zone:

Terrain

{| class="infobox" style="clear:none"

! Land Use

| (2012)

!• Arable land

|1.26%

!• Permanent crops

|0.66%

!• Other

| 98.08%

thumb|330x330px|Share of forest area in total land area, top countries (2021). Gabon has the fourth highest percentage of forest cover in the world.

Narrow coastal plain with patches of Central African mangroves; hilly interior; savanna in east and south. A recent global remote sensing analysis suggested that there were 420 km2 of tidal flats in Gabon, making it the 50th ranked country in terms of tidal flat area.

Irrigated land: 44.5 km2 (2003)
Total renewable water resources: 164 km3 (2011)

Environment

International agreements:

Party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands, Whaling

Climate

The equatorial location of Gabon means that it has a tropical monsoon climate (Köppen Am) and a tropical savanna climate (Köppen Aw), with the temperature being hot year-round and humid, although the Benguela Current can moderate temperatures.

Forests

REDD+ reference levels and monitoring

Under the UNFCCC REDD+ framework, Gabon has submitted a national forest reference level (FRL). On the UNFCCC REDD+ Web Platform, Gabon's 2021 submission is listed as having an assessed reference level, and the platform also lists reported REDD+ results, a safeguards information summary, and a national REDD+ strategy.

The first assessed FRL, technically assessed in 2021, covered all five REDD+ activities at national scale - reducing emissions from deforestation, reducing emissions from forest degradation, conservation of forest carbon stocks, sustainable management of forests, and enhancement of forest carbon stocks. Using a historical reference period of 2000-2009, the assessed FRL was -96,468,186 t CO2 eq per year, revised from -97,055,549 t CO2 eq per year in the original submission. The technical assessment states that the benchmark included above-ground biomass, below-ground biomass, deadwood and litter, excluded soil organic carbon, and reported CO2 only. In this framework, tree cover refers to vegetation taller than 5 m (including natural forests and tree plantations), and tree cover loss is defined as the complete removal of tree cover canopy for a given year, regardless of cause.

For Gabon, country statistics report cumulative tree cover loss of from 2001 to 2024 (about 2.2% of its 2000 tree cover area). Rising sea levels threaten to erode the coastline and contaminate freshwater sources with saltwater. The country is already experiencing more frequent and severe extreme weather events, such as floods, droughts, and storms, which damage infrastructure, displace communities, and disrupt food security and livelihoods.

To adapt, Gabon prioritises protecting its coastal areas, as well as its fishing, agriculture, and forestry industries. It is recognized as a global leader in climate action and is widely considered the most carbon-positive country in the world, due to its strong conservation efforts. It also seeks to expand its renewable energy sector.

Extreme points

Northernmost point - unnamed location on the border with Cameroon on the Ntem River, Woleu-Ntem province
Easternmost point - the unnamed location on the border with the Republic of Congo immediately south-west of the Congolese village of Mbeyi-Mbola, Haut-Ogooué province
Southernmost point - the point at which the border with the Republic of Congo enters the Atlantic Ocean, Nyanga Province
Westernmost point - the north-west point of Cape Lopez, Ogooué Maritime province

left|thumb|Topography of Gabon

left|thumb|Gabon's cities, towns and villages