17.10.2025
As part of her dual degree programme between Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech and AgroParisTech, Élise Cambier wrote a thesis at ATIBT on the challenges of sustainable management in Asian-owned forest concessions in Gabon. This work, supported by GIZ and completed in September 2025, is part of the ongoing efforts of ATIBT and GIZ to help forestry companies better integrate sustainability principles.
The study was conducted in the field in
three Asian concessions with different levels of certification (certified sustainable, certified legal and uncertified) and is based on a qualitative and comparative approach. It analyses how these companies understand, interpret and implement sustainable management requirements in an often complex institutional and economic context.
The results reveal that Asian companies take a pragmatic and strategic approach to sustainability standards. Far from rejecting them, their approach consists of adapting the principles to the realities on the ground and to their economic priorities. Sustainability is seen primarily as a lever for accessing markets and maintaining their legitimacy, rather than an intrinsic ethical or environmental commitment. Several factors explain this management approach: Several factors may explain this approach: sometimes limited investment capacity, corporate values, extensive use of subcontracting, lack of training and technical skills to fully apply standards, and the complexity and cost of implementing requirements. These factors lead to a technical and administrative interpretation of the requirements, focused on regulatory compliance, document compilation, or responding to audits.
The practical implementation of sustainability principles varies from one concession to another. Some limit themselves to minimum compliance, while others, which are better integrated into the support mechanisms offered by GIZ, ATIBT or PPECF, are initiating more structured practices: setting up monitoring units, using external experts and gradually adopting environmental and social performance indicators. Although promising, these initiatives often remain dependent on external supervision, and their internal consolidation is still limited.
This master’s thesis highlights the specific characteristics of Asian companies: their organizational flexibility, high level of delegation of responsibilities and intensive use of subcontracting mean that their commitment to sustainability is a pragmatic and contextual reinterpretation of external requirements. The study also emphasizes that sustainability is not built solely on standards or certifications, but on the ability of companies and administrations to engage in dialogue, adjust their practices and learn continuously.
In conclusion, fieldwork has been crucial in understanding the subtleties of interactions, tensions and trade-offs between economic imperatives and normative requirements. It shows that sustainability, in the context of Asian concessions in Gabon, is emerging as a process of adaptation and strategic translation, revealing both local issues and the dynamics of the globalization of forestry standards.
The study is downloadable here. Please contact Elise Cambier (elise.cambier@atibt.org) for any further information.
