Wednesday, January 24th, 2024 from 12:00-1:30pm PST

The rising global interest in psychedelics prompts critical questions about its impact on Gabon’s iboga tradition. The Blessings of the Forest initiative, led by Co-Directors David Nassim and Yann Guignon, addresses sustainability concerns, linked to the Nagoya Protocol. This initiative aims to balance plant medicine exploration with environmental conservation and community well-being. In an insightful interview, Brazilian psychologist Bruno Ramos Gomes will explore the initiative’s reception in Gabon and discuss contemporary challenges in fostering an ethical relationship between local communities and Western actors. Join us for a meaningful conversation on the intersection of cultural heritage, sustainability, and global interest in plant medicines.

David Nassim is Co-Director of Blessings of the Forest with Yann Guignon. David advocates for the Indigenous and traditional people’s rights associated with iboga culture and fundraising in the international arena. His background has been in Chinese medicine for over 24 years, culminating in consultancy and teaching with a focus in the energetics of self-healing response. He has a special interest in psychotropic plants, and raising awareness of Indigenous people’s deep instinctive understanding of their own herbal medicine heritage. He feels that reciprocity is a vital approach to sustainable relationship and that Indigenous cultures must be consulted in every way concerning the use of their ancient medicinals, not merely for truly safe and effective treatment. David’s interest lies in forming community that bridges cultures, where listening inclusively brings universal benifit.

Bruno Ramos Gomes is a Brazilian psychologist, with Master’s degree in Public Health at the School of Public Health-USP, and a PhD in Public Health at University of Campinas, Brazil. In his masters, he researched the use of ayahuasca in the recovery of homeless people and drug users. In his PhD, he did a 12 month qualitative follow-up of patients treating drug dependence and depression. He has been helping patients integrate ibogaine and ayahuasca in their therapeutic processes for the last 12 years. He is a member of the ICARO (Interdisciplinary Cooperation for Ayahuasca Research and Outreach)-UNICAMP and Chacruna’s Ayahuasca Community Committee.

Yann Guignon, 49, Franco-Gabonese, has been a Consultant in Intercultural Mediation & Sustainable Development for over 20 years. Yann has been an iboga initiate since 2004 and a Bwiti initiate since 2006. In 2011, the Gabonese authorities commissioned him, under the supervision of Professor Jean Noel Gassita, to write a comprehensive report on iboga in Gabon and internationally. This report formed the basis for Gabon’s ratification of the Nagoya Protocol in November 2011. In 2015 Yann founded the social organization Blessings Of The Forest (BOTF CIC) in England, with his friend David Nassim, dedicated to the conservation and sustainable/fair development of the cultural/natural heritage of the peoples of Gabon. In 2018 Yann and his wife Marie Lou created Blessings Of The Forest NGO (BOTF) in Gabon, and then signed a partnership agreement with the Ministry of Water and Forests of the Gabonese Republic to implement the Nagoya Protocol with iboga as the pilot resource. BOTF Gabon gradually signed 15 technical, social and financial support agreements with Gabonese community and traditionalist associations to develop iboga farms (as other project linked to their cultural/natural heritage), in order to create an industry that would halt the growing poaching of the resource, and to enable traditionalist communities to benefit from the profits generated by their ancestral cultural heritage. In 2023 BOTF Gabon finalizes the implementation of the Nagoya Protocol and obtains the very first license to export iboga from a Gabonese community forest to a clinic treating opiate addiction in Mexico (TerraGnosis).

Gabon and the Ethics of the Globalization of Iboga and Ibogaine