Cote D’Ivoire
Environment
Much like the rest of West Africa, Côte d'Ivoire has suffered severe deforestation. As of
2005, less than 2 percent of the country's land area was covered with primary forest, while
less than a third of Côte d'Ivoire was forested at all. Agriculture, uncontrolled fires, and
logging for tropical woods —once Ivory Coast's largest export by volume—were the
primary causes of forest loss. Since winning indepdence from France in 1960, Cote
d`Ivoire`s forested area has fallen from around 16 million hectares to 10 million hectares.
Once the darling of West Africa with its economic miracle of the 1980s, the country by the
1990s had collapsed because of resource depletion and declining agricultural productivity.
The situation has only worsened since then and civil war has plagued the country since
the end of 1999. Prior to the outbreak of war, the Ivorian government worked to make
conservation a priority, setting 17 percent of the country aside in protected areas and
taking measures against illegal logging, poaching, and settler encroachment in parks. The
government banned raw-log exports and encouraged the development of forest
plantations, while deforestation rates plunged. Between 1990 and 2005, Côte d'Ivoire lost
only 1.8 percent of its forest cover. Today the status of conservation efforts in Côte d'Ivoire
is unclear. If neighboring Liberia is any indication, it is likely that Côte d'Ivoire's
ecosystems will further decline.
International Agreements
Ivory Coast is party to the following international agreements: Biodiversity, Climate
Change, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine
Dumping, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94,
Wetlands, Whaling
Diversity
Côte d'Ivoire has the highest level of biodiversity in West Africa, with over 1,200 animal
species (232 mammals, 702 birds, 125 reptiles, 38 amphibians, 111 fish) and 4,700 plant
species. Most of this diversity occurs in the rugged interior region and not in the coastal
regions as is the case in other parts of West Africa.
Social Economic: Cote D’Ivoire was considered one of the few economic success stories
of sub Saharan Africa, with a 7.1 annual growth rate of GDP from 1965 to 1973 and 3.7
from 1973 to 1984. The country is now recovering from civil war.
Climate Change Issues
World top cocoa grower, Cote D’Ivoire is researching ways to maintain output from the
wide range of crops it produces amid rainfall levels it says are decreasing due to climate
change. Farmers in Daloa in the centre-west of Ivory Coast said drought-like conditions,
which last for months and kill younger cocoa plants, are a great challenge. Opportunity for
the development of plant species more resistant to dry conditions, shifting sowing
and harvesting periods according to weather conditions, irrigation, and planting of
perennial producers such as rubber.
Economy
Maintaining close ties to France since independence in 1960, diversification of agriculture
for export, and encouragement of foreign investment, has made Côte d'Ivoire one of the
most prosperous of the tropical African states. However, in recent years Côte d'Ivoire has
been subject to greater competition and falling prices in the global marketplace for its
primary agricultural crops: coffee and cocoa. That, compounded with high internal
corruption, makes life difficult for the grower and those exporting into foreign markets.