The Ivorian authorities are working hard to find ways to implement their forestry strategy
On 16 January 2020, Côte d’Ivoire will hold a round table of donors to finance the implementation of its new forestry policy.
The announcement was made on Monday, October 7 by the Minister of Water and Forestry, Alain-Richard Donwahi, at a press conference in Abidjan. In line with the promulgation in July of the new forestry code, the politician indicated that the estimated costs to finance the country’s forestry strategy for the period 2020-2030 amounted to 616 billion CFA francs (1.03 billion dollars). In fact, the needs are commensurate with the challenges. The world’s largest producer of cocoa - an agricultural activity regularly criticized for its harmful environmental impact - Côte d’Ivoire has seen its forest cover increase from 16 million hectares in 1960 (50% of the country’s area) to 2 million hectares today (6%). A massive deforestation that made the Ivorian minister say that it was important to « realize that the forest is a wealth, a heritage to bequeath to future generations ». « We want to save the Ivorian forest, we want to regain the lost ground, replant, reforest, mobilize our fellow citizens and partners, » he stressed, before specifying that the objective was to recover « 6 million hectares in 2030 and 8 million hectares of forest cover in 2045. As for the expected financing, in addition to international donors, the cocoa industry should be « the stakeholders in[this] great ambition of forest rehabilitation in Côte d’Ivoire ». The Minister also announced the government’s wish to plant one million trees throughout Côte d’Ivoire on the occasion of the celebration of the National Day of Peace on 15 November.
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Source : REDD+1
1- International mechanism to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, including the roles of stock conservation, sustainable management and enhancement of carbon stocks (REDD+).