CONTENTS | ANB-BIA HOMEPAGE | WEEKLY NEWS
by Doumbia B. Moise, Côte d'Ivoire, March 1998
THEME = ECONOMY
The Forest Improvement Society's programme for action
Recently, 17 journalists visited the Tené Forest Reserve, situated in the Sub-Prefecture of Oumé (towards the west of Côte d'Ivoire).
The president of the management committee, Mr Gaston Ouassenan Iconé, and the director of The Forest Improvement Society (SODEFOR), Mr Jean-Claude Anoh, also travelled to Gagnoa, the area administrative centre closest to Tané, for the occasion. They came to provide the journalists with all relevent information.
The journalists were told that since 1971, Tené's 50,000 hectares have been classified as a forest reserve. Species such as Samba, Fraké, Koto, Iroko, Aniegré, Kotibe, Ira, Sipo, Tiama, Côte d'Ivoire White Mahogany are all found there.
Sodefor þ SODEFOR was established in 1996 with the aim of conserving and administering the country's forest heritage, of some 600,000 hectares of very diversified species, growing in 169 forest reservations. SODEFOR also ensures that provision is made for reafforestation and that the existing forest area is preserved for future generations. Through SODEFOR's good offices, the government aims to ensure that Côte d'Ivoire's forest area increases from 14% of the total land area, to 20% by the year 2015.
The reserves come under the dual authority of the Minister of Agriculture and Animal Resources, and the Minister of Economy and Finance.
Timber forms an important part of the nation's economy. It generates up to 200 billion CFA francs towards the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) each year and provides 70% of Togo's domestic energy needs. More than 30,000 people are employed in Côte d'Ivoire's forests, of whom 18,000 work in well-equipped industrial timber-processing factories. 80 billion CFA francs worth of finished goods are shipped to Europe each year.
SODEFOR is financed as follows: 53% from loans; 14% from gifts; 33% from sales of goods available in the various plantations and nurseries, and from payment of forest dues.
The Tené Forest authorities explained SODEFOR's aims and methods to the journalists, and also indicated the extent of the area covered by the various species found in Tené: Teak - 11,423 hectares; Fraké - 4,343 hectares; Cedar - 1,828 hectares; Gmelina - 2,224 hectares; Framiré - 619 hectares; Samba - 238 hectares; others - 13 hectares. Making a grand total of 20,688 hectares of various species.
33 employees work here. All the work involved in preparing the ground for planting, the upkeep of the plantations and general forestry management is sub-contracted out to private firms, cooperatives and groups of young local smallholders.
Tené Forest þ Tené is divided into twelve sectors so as to guarantee a strict control and an effective means of dealing with forest or bush fires as soon as they start. SODEFOR personnel go out on regular patrols. They are provided with mopeds or cars equipped with mobile radios, and they crisscross the forest in an effort to control the effects of bad weather.
The journalists were particularly interested in a visit made to a timber processing factory.
On 9 December 1993, the civil administration decided to set up a special commission dealing with relations between the local smallholders and the forest reserve authorities. Because farming was no longer allowed within the forest reserve, SODEFOR developed a 10 hectare property just outside Tené. The first twenty smallholders who had to leave their farms within the forest reserve, received land and housing on this site. SODEFOR's director-general made it clear to the journalists that he in no way blamed the smallholders for the deforestation which had occurred in the past. True, they had cut down trees and cleared the land but they didn't know about the long-term effects of their actions. There simply wasn't enough cash available to organise awareness campaigns on the importance of forest conservation, among local smallholders living within the forest area.
Both financial and technical help are badly needed if SODEFOR is to achieve its aim of increasing to 20%, Togo's forest inheritance by the year 2015.
END
CONTENTS | ANB-BIA HOMEPAGE | WEEKLY NEWS
PeaceLink 1998 - Reproduction authorised, with usual acknowledgement