Transporting logs in Côte d‘Ivoire

    Core area “Conserving nature and natural resources, protecting life on Earth” Conserving forests and biodiversity

    Some 60 per cent of Côte d'Ivoire's forests have been cut down over the last 35 years. One major factor in this deforestation has been the expansion of agriculture. This is posing an acute threat to protected areas and their biodiversity. Moreover, the loss of forests is leading to microclimate change, with a risk of reduced rainfall. One focus of Germany's development cooperation activities is therefore on conserving biodiversity in the national parks of Taï and Comoé.

    They are Côte d'Ivoire's largest national parks. They are also UNESCO World Heritage sites and home to numerous mammal species. Taï National Park comprises about half of the remaining forest area of the Upper Guinea rainforest. It is home to about 93 per cent of all species of West Africa's forest fauna, including forest elephants, chimpanzees and pygmy hippos.

    Germany is helping Côte d'Ivoire to improve the management of the parks and to develop their infrastructure. In buffer zones, local people are assisted in increasing their incomes from agriculture through sustainable farming techniques and technical innovation.

    In order to prevent the protected areas from becoming more and more fragmented, Germany also supports a regional project for the establishment of an ecological corridor between the Taï National Park and a protected area in neighbouring Liberia.

    In the future, the two countries' governments will increase their joint development cooperation efforts to restore forests and forest landscapes. This will contribute to the African Forest Landscape Restoration Initiative (AFR100) target of restoring five million hectares of forest land in Côte d'Ivoire. Côte d'Ivoire and the EU recently concluded a Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA) to improve forest governance with a view to reducing illegal deforestation. Germany has been providing strong support to both the AFR100 effort and the VPA.


    As at: 09/02/2023