APA-Abidjan (Côte d’Ivoire) The United Nations is supporting the Ivorian government, through various entities, to restore the country’s forest cover, which is in an advanced state of degradation.
In this context, FAO and its partners have set up the PROMIRE Project, aimed at promoting deforestation-free cocoa production to reduce the country’s CO2 emissions, as well as forest restoration.
On Wednesday December 6, 2023, the project’s Steering Committee visited agroforestry plots in Aboude Kouassikro and forest restoration plots in Oress Krobou, two villages in the Agboville Department (South).
The project is being carried out in three forest regions of Côte d’Ivoire, namely Agneby-Tiassa, Mé and Sud Comoe. Mino Randrianarison, technical manager of the PROMIRE project at FAO headquarters in Rome, was delighted that the objectives had “doubled, even tripled”.
Mino Randrianarison, an FAO forester, said that in terms of statistics, the PROMIRE project has so far achieved “350 hectares of forest restoration,” adding that “we’re going to aim for 1,000 ha for next year (2024), for the three regions.”
“We still have three years to implement the project, and the Steering Committee decided at a meeting on Tuesday December 5, 2023, that there will be an intensification of support in the three regions covered by the project for the year 2024,” she added.
“Since the start of the project in 2019, we have supported around 1,200 ha, or even just over 1,200 ha of cocoa plantations in terms of agricultural systems,” she mentioned, announcing a projection of “at least 2,200 ha” by 2024.
Ms. Mino Randrianarison added that the outlook should enable the objectives for forest restoration in these target regions to be “rapidly doubled or even tripled,” adding that this is “the challenge for next year.”
In the village of Aboude Kouassikro, Augustin Ahibi Yao, a cocoa producer, benefits from the agroforestry project. His 11.5 ha plot is monitored by Nadjo Traore, a technician specializing in perennial crops at the National Agency for Dural development Support (ANADER).
According to Nadjo Traore, forest trees such as Frake, Tiama, Framire, Petit cola and fruit plants, notably orange and avocado, have been introduced in and around the plantation to restore the forest cover.
Mr. Ahibi recalled that the late Félix Houphouet-Boigny, the first president of Côte d’Ivoire, had in 1969 motivated farmers to conserve the vegetation cover to guarantee wildlife, illustrating this with a tree planting initiated by the “Father of the Nation,” which he proudly presented.
“Reforestation will make us happy,” says this man, now 75. He prays that ANADER will help him maintain his plots, which once contained numerous species of trees prized by loggers.
A short distance away, Pascal Akale Gohi and his wife maintain a 2.5-hectare cocoa plantation. Despite the planting of forest trees in his plot and the use of organic fertilizer, organic compost, he achieved a yield of 2.2 tonnes per hectare in 2022, compared with 1.2 tonnes the previous year.
The Steering Committee team then visited forest restoration plots in the village of Oress Krobou. The project in this area is monitored by the NGO ‘Sante-Education-Developpement’ (SED), which offers species such as teak.
Aimé Lidji Ngbo, one of the beneficiaries of the forest restoration project, was delighted with the initiative. Later, he says, “the trees will come back to us, but they will also help to combat deforestation and the destruction of the ozone layer,” to the benefit of mankind.
The forest and fruit seedlings introduced into the plots will be returned to the growers. The State has drawn up a contract with the farmers to conserve these trees for a period of 20 years, at the end of which they can benefit from the carbon credit project.
In the new Forestry Code, the Ivorian government has provided for Payments for Environmental Services (PES), the terms of which are “currently being discussed” to boost the restoration of Côte d’Ivoire’s forest cover.
Côte d’Ivoire’s forest cover is estimated at 2.97 million hectares, representing 9.2 percent of the national territory, according to the latest national forest and wildlife inventory (IFFN). Over the last 60 years, 90 percent of the country’s forest area has disappeared.
In June 2011, Côte d’Ivoire signed up to the international mechanism for reducing greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+), with the aim of increasing its forest cover to 20 percent by 2030 and ensuring sustainable, resilient development in the face of climate change.
AP/fss/abj/APA