Côte d'Ivoire

Summary
Tai National Park in Côte d'Ivoire, a World Heritage Site, is the single-largest tract of undisturbed tropical rainforest in West Africa. The survival of the forest has been seriously threatened by the activities of slash-and-burn farmers, poachers, timber companies, and illegal gold miners.

In response, WWF is working with partners to establish the Autonomous Project for the Conservation of Tai National Park. The ultimate goal of this project is to ensure the long-term conservation of the Tai National Park ecosystem.
 
Background
Tai National Park, established in 1972 on the recommendation of WWF and IUCN, is the single-largest tract of undisturbed tropical rainforest in West Africa. It ranks among the highest priority tropical moist forest areas in Africa, according to the African Review System, and action plans drawn up by IUCN's Species Survival Commission (SSC) and the Commission on National Parks and Protected Areas (CNPPA).

The first management plan was drawn up in 1975 by the Bureau pour le Developpement de la Production Agricole and in 1982 Tai was declared a World Heritage Site.

In recent years the situation at Tai has become critical. In May 1988 the farmers were given 3 years' notice to leave the area by the Ministry of Water and Forest. Despite this, farming for cocoa and coffee is still prevalent in some areas of the protection zone. Poaching has also increased, and in the Southern and Eastern parts of the park illegal gold mining has been a serious problem. On the Western side of the park, demographic pressure was greatly increased by the influx of Liberian refugees.

The current Autonomous Project for the Conservation of Tai National Park (APCTNP) is an integrated conservation and development project funded by the German Development Bank (KfW). It is implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ), WWF, and research organisations (e.g. the Dutch Tropical Forest Aid Programme - Tropenbos), in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources.

WWF's role in APCTNP adds to and complements those proposed by the project, particularly in providing technical support to park management authorities in surveillance, ecotourism, monitoring and evaluation, and by developing and coordinating an environmental education programme.