“The Ivory Coast lost 80% of its forest cover from 1900 to 2015; and at the rate of this deforestation, the country could lose all of its forests by 2034 if nothing is done ”, indicates a report of the United Nations Development Program (PND) presented in Abidjan, Wednesday 19 May, after its launch in Oslo (Norway) on the theme “Human development and the anthropocene: the next frontier”.
During this presentation, the UNDP Resident Representative in Côte d’Ivoire, Carol Flore-Smereczniak, noted the inequalities in human development despite the economic performance recorded at the global or national level. Before pointing the finger at the looting of Ivorian natural resources.
The Ivorian Ministry of Water had taken the bet to plant 3 billion trees in 10 years, to make up the deficit of 3 million hectares of forests through the new policy of preservation, rehabilitation and extension of forests adopted by government in 2017. Aware that increasing forest cover from 3.5 million ha to 6.4 million ha, or 20% of forest cover, does not seem to be a task, Minister Alain Richard Donwahi has defined his strategy on three axes: the contribution of technical and financial partners, the private sector and the population for the production of plants and seedballs, local initiatives in the regions of the country to support the operation at the local level and the general emulation of the entire population around the planting.
