News

A great forester leaves us

21.04.2023

ATIBT regrets to inform you of the death of Jean-Marie Pasquier and expresses its deepest condolences to his family.

Jean-Marie Pasquier - (c) Benoît Demarquez

You will find below a text written by Benoît Demarquez to pay tribute to him.

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A great forester leaves us.

Jean-Marie Pasquier is now looking at the canopy from the stars, as he liked to do when flying over the okoumé forests of Gabon, which he loved so much, which made his life.

Jean-Marie was a forester of the old school, and yet so modern! The first forester in Central Africa to integrate forest management into his practices, he certainly became the best forest manager in Gabon... and beyond. An outstanding forest manager, having travelled through the forests of Mayombe, Doussala, and then Ogooué-Lolo in Gabon, he was able, even though he was nearing the end of his career, to adopt the rules of forest management that young experts who were still beginners, Nicolas Bayol, Philippe Jeanmart, Nicolas Dubart, myself and so many others, had the privilege of sharing with him. He taught us so much!

His incredible know-how, his intelligence, his unequalled experience, his unalterable requirement, his passion for the forest, his capacity to question himself despite 40 years of experience, did the rest. Jean-Marie Pasquier has left behind him a model of forest exploitation such as we would like to see developed everywhere. He laid the foundations of forest certification at its highest level.

Jean-Marie, "the elephant" as his teams at Bambidie liked to call him, behind his memorable outbursts, was extremely human.

The Okoumés are crying. A page is turned.

All our thoughts to his family.