We travelled by bus from Libreville into the heart of Gabon, one of the world’s most forested countries.

Near the road, most forests had been cut back, leaving a mix of gardens, dwellings and patchy regrowth, while densely forested hills loomed just behind. Morsels of bushmeat for sale, mostly porcupine and duiker, hung on poles along the road. As we neared our destination, transmission lines were being strung up alongside the newly constructed highway, only a few kilometers short of connecting local villages to the national grid.

We were on our way to Mouila, w