I grew up in Uganda with Cedric, a young orphan chimpanzee as a brother. It became my mission in life to save the African rain forests, home to our three closest relatives, chimps, bonobos and gorillas. As a conservationist with the Wildlife Conservation Society I helped President Omar Bongo create Gabon's network of 13 National Parks. I directed Gabon's National Parks Agency, ANPN, from 2009-2019, raising $160 million of donor funds to build a para-military protected areas management agency. Gabon's forest elephant population grew from 60,000 to 95,000 on my watch. As director of ANPN I fought ivory traffickers linked to Boko Haram, expanded the parks mission, creating 20 marine protected areas covering 26% of Gabon's EEZ and launching a war against IUU fishing with Sea Shepherd and broke an illegal timber mafia stealing $300 million per year, following on from an undercover investigation undertaken with EIA. I became Gabon's Minister of Water, Forests, the Sea and Environment in June 2019 and remained in that position until a military coup deposed President Ali Bongo Ondimba. As minister I oversaw the doubling of Gabon's forest economy, from $500 million to $1 billion in 4 years, signed a $150 million results based agreement with Norway initiating payments for reduced CO2 emissions, validated 187 million REDD+ results with the UNFCCC and developed a $500 million debt restructuring initiative with the help of TNC, to raise $167 million for marine conservation. I have acted as a bridge between Africa and the West and between science and policy throughout my career. Now I plan to try and harness the power of the private sector to further my mission, to save the African rain forests.