The results of the forest and wildlife inventory project, which took place in Côte d’Ivoire from 2019 to 2021, will be presented at the 15th World Forestry Congress, to be held from May 2 to 6, 2022, in Seoul.
The WFC will be an opportunity to reiterate that Côte d’Ivoire’s flora and fauna are close to a critical threshold on the path to extinction. At the current rate of deforestation and forest degradation, these will cover less than 2 million hectares by 2035, and many species will have disappeared by then.
However, beyond this undeniable observation, this presentation also aims to convey hope. Indeed, by accepting this inventory and the presentation of its conclusions in June 2021 at the final project seminar, Côte d’Ivoire implicitly recognized the urgency of the situation in its country, and more broadly in the sub-region, as Togo and Ghana are unfortunately in similar situations.
Canceled in 2021 due to the COVID pandemic, the event’s new dates will allow the Congress to benefit from the momentum created by various COPs (UNFCCC COP26, CBD COP15, and UNCCD COP15), the IUCN World Conservation Congress, and the UN Food Systems Summit.
The Côte d’Ivoire NFFI was implemented by the organizations ONFI, IGN, and IGN FI, with operational support from the Forest Development Company (SODEFOR) for the forest inventory, the Ivorian Parks and Reserves Office (OIPR) for the wildlife inventory, and the National Rural Development Support Agency (ANADER) for the socio-economic component.
