Scientific and technical research in Gabon, from the colonial period to 1975, was the domain reserved for the Overseas Scientific and Technical Research Office (ORSTOM), the Tropical Technical Center for Forestry (CTFT) and the National Center for Scientific Research. Scientific Research (CNRS). Only from 1976 that Gabon, independent for fifteen years only, decides to take again the direction of the scientific and technical research by creating the National Center of the Scientific Research and Technological (CENAREST). The convention signed in 1977 in Paris between the Gabonese and French governments will then allow CENAREST to benefit de facto from CTFT's former premises, ORSTOM and CNRS