Gabon's Lee White on fighting poachers to save wildlife

Lee White, the Minister of Forests and Environment in the West African state of Gabon has said there is a clear link between the good governance of natural resources and peace and security.

The country has declared war on poachers, to protect its forest elephants and other wildlife.

Mr White told Hardtalk's Stephen Sackur: "We realise in Gabon that if we don't get it right we are going to end up like Central African Republic for example, where 35 years ago CAR was a tropical paradise like Gabon.

"Then the poachers moved in from the north from Chad, Sudan - they killed the rhinos and then they killed the elephants, then they killed the big game and then they killed the small game and they became bandits, robbers, rebels."

Watch the full interview on Wednesday 28 August 2019 on BBC World News or watch again on BBC iPlayer (UK only)