We are delighted to announce the recent cooperation between #MRVEnergy and #UNOPS in the continuation of the #PAPFor project for the conservation of transboundary forest landscapes in Africa.
Our mission consists in the realization of a "GAP-analysis" of the territorial, environmental and socio-economic diagnoses of the existing inventories in and around the #MontNimba landscape between Guinea, Ivory Coast and Liberia.
The current environmental context is under the sign of urgency for several years. Day after day, vast forest territories are razed for the benefit of the economy and politics. In this case, in West Africa, the forest territories represent a surface of 66.8 million hectares of which 27.7 million hectares are located in protected areas. Rich in natural resources, these lands play a key role in the security of regional biodiversity.
Some studies have highlighted the decline of these forests by an average of 740,000 hectares between 1990 and 2015. Threatening the well-being of an entire biodiversity, regional institutions have adopted a Forest Convergence Plan (FCP) and negotiated with the European Union to support the Support Program for Ecosystem Preservation (PAPFor). This program aims to conserve five transboundary forest landscapes between Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Côte d'Ivoire as well as Nigeria.
Classified as a World Heritage Site in Danger, Mount Nimba is a biosphere reserve located on the borders of Guinea, Liberia and Côte d'Ivoire. Unfortunately, the massif is threatened by a variety of pressures near the site's boundaries such as riparian populations, the influx of refugees from Liberia and Côte d'Ivoire, mining, agricultural activities, deforestation, poaching, and consequently overall poor management.
Since 1992, efforts to improve transboundary management have been put in place but remain insufficient. 2011 is the year of change with the co-signature of Liberia, Côte d'Ivoire and Guinea for a program advocating better management and regional sectoral cooperation.
"Preserve and restore terrestrial ecosystems, ensuring their sustainable use, manage forests sustainably, combat desertification, halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss" is the sustainable development goal n.15 that the United Nations has set.
Therefore, in order to intervene for the preservation of Mount Nimba and its biosphere, the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) has requested our analytical services. The overall objective is to establish a concertation model for sustainable and inclusive local development, improving citizen participation and integrating conservation, sustainable development, concertation and cooperation aspects.
However, over the years, several studies have been identified on territorial, socio-economic and environmental diagnoses. In order to avoid unnecessary duplication and thus to better orient the actions to be taken, we are asked to carry out a "gap-analysis" of the existing studies. This GAP analysis will allow, among other things, the emergence of elements allowing the identification of new actions and solutions to be taken into consideration in the implementation of corrective measures at the level of local development plans.
The mission is clear: to conduct an analysis of existing studies and identify missing studies in relation to the indicators of the PAPFor project in order to guide the actions to be taken to achieve the expected results.
Comments