The village of Massaha in Gabon in the vast province of Ogooue-Ivindo, is at the heart of a passionate debate about the future of logging and conservation. Loggers were given authorisation to exploit trees in the area, but villagers say their bulldozers gouged a swathe through the area and destroyed ancestral graves. Angry and fearful, the locals asked the government to scrap the logging licence on the grounds of suspected violations and a threat to "biocultural heritage." In March 2022, Lee White, the minister of water, forests, and the environment, came to see the situation for himself and admitted that there were issues and told AFP, "We suspended the exploitation, we set up a mapping system, this time professional and participatory with the population." IMAGES AND SOUNDBITES