Gabon is tightening the rules around iboga. On 22 May 2026 President Brice Oligui Nguema signed Decree No. 0239/PR/MJSRCAVA, which regulates access, use, exploitation, research, processing and commercialization of Tabernanthe iboga, its derivatives and the traditional knowledge linked to it. The text is listed in the Journal Officiel. It requires prior authorization for many activities and sets the groundwork for benefit-sharing with communities plus a sovereign fund.
Then, on 18 September 2026, the Council of Ministers meeting in Port-Gentil adopted a draft decree that would ban the export of iboga and all its derivatives in any form. The measure covers both individuals and companies. Penalties can come under criminal, forestry or customs law. Local reporting treated the decision as adopted that day; the official communiqué of the meeting itself is available as a consolidated PDF from the Secretariat of the Council of Ministers.
The stated aim is to protect the plant and the knowledge tied to it. Iboga sits at the center of Bwiti, the initiation and healing tradition long practiced in Gabon. Practitioners use the root bark in rites that have shaped social and spiritual life for generations. Rising commercial interest in the alkaloid ibogaine has put pressure on both the wild stocks and the cultural context around the plant. International demand has grown with the expansion of medically supervised treatment programs, mostly in Mexico. At the same time, heavy wild harvesting has occurred inside protected forests, and an Interpol review from 2023 already described a large share of the trade as illicit.
Some communities have tried cultivation. The A2E association in Ogooué-Ivindo province sold 41 kg of cultivated material legally between 2023 and early 2025, but the promised share of downstream value has not materialized. Guy-Bertrand Mapangou, president of the Economic, Social, Environmental and Cultural Council, has publicly argued that Gabon should not simply supply the raw material and knowledge while research, patents and most of the revenue are generated elsewhere. He has also warned that treating initiatory knowledge as a commodity risks emptying Bwiti of its meaning.
For ibogaine clinics that use purified ibogaine hydrochloride the immediate impact is still unclear. Origin of the material is rarely disclosed in public listings. A harder export regime from Gabon could reduce one supply route, raise costs or shift more volume into informal channels. It could also push more extraction work inside the country, which some local actors have requested. Full implementation of the May decree, including the fund and clear benefit-sharing rules, is not yet complete, and the September text remains a draft.