Taï, Cavally region, Côte d'Ivoire: A forest project puts people on the warpath, the mayor calms them.
Credit photo: www.infodrome.com
Translation of the article in French, published on the site www.linfodrome.com on 2019, 16 July by par H.Z. (Infos C.A.) :
Taï National Park, which covers 5,400 km2, is today one of the last primary forests in West Africa. To safeguard it, Unesco classified it in 1981 as World Heritage of Humanity. It is in this same perspective that the German Cooperation (GIZ, KfW) has just initiated a biodiversity conservation project in this forest complex called "ecological corridor"
With a cost of 3.5 billion CFA francs, this project will demarcate and secure an area that will extend on the Taï-Grébo-Sapo strip on both countries. The goal is to create a safe passage for the important wildlife that shelters those forests. Animals could then migrate from Taï National Park in Côte d'Ivoire to Grebo Krahn and Sapo in Liberia and vice versa.
The creation of this corridor of several kilometers will not be done without depriving the populations of the area of their land. This is precisely the problem. In 1983, in the same concern to preserve this important forest heritage, the same populations were pushed back a distance of 4 kilometers from the park boundaries. The promises of compensation that were made at that time to the villagers, were never held. The municipality of Taï either didn't benefit from the fallout of the park, except for the construction of a wall surrounding the city's hospital.
This unfortunate precedent has obviously pointed the people of Taï against this new project. They are furious and ready to do anything. They said no to this project on July 4, 2018, sequestering one of the deputies to the mayor and vandalizing premises of the town hall. On July 3, 2019, the department prefect, chair of the steering committee, representing the Minister of Environment and Sustainable Development, convenes a meeting at his office to calm the tension that has not faded a year later, almost day to day. There were, according to our sources, the mayor of Tai, Hippolyte Bayalla, project leaders of the German Development, the heads of the various localities impacted, eleven villages and a camp, for a population of more than 4000 inhabitants.
In his intervention, the prefect tried to explain the merits of this project in a region where the high density of the population due to increasing migrations endangers the existence of flora and fauna. After the explanation session of the prefectural authority, the reactions were not long in coming. The village chief of Gouléako1, Pāho Tchéré Jocelin requested the suspension of the project, the time that the populations of requirements are met. Same reservation issued by the president of the youth of this locality, Gerard Habib who urged the project leaders to think first of the youth who is left behind.
Rather skeptical, Mama Ouattara, the youth leader of the Senufo region does not see at all a good eye this "animal corridor", which will bring nothing, according to him, the people of Taï like the National Park.
Another youth leader jokes about this project to protect animals: "In Taiwan, wounded chimpanzees are transported by helicopter to heal them. Meanwhile, because of the disastrous state of the road and lack of ambulance to get our moms and our sisters to the maternity, they die en route during their evacuation.
The chief magistrate of the city of Taï, Hyppolite Bayalla, also expresses much reserve on the opportunity of this project:
"A priori, we do not agree with this project. But, since the State is accompanying the initiator who is the Federal Republic of Germany, we would like to open discussions to clearly define the benefits of this project for the people and the municipality of Taï. It is imperative that all the conditions be met for the success of this project with a strong commitment of the State vis-à-vis the people who have suffered too much, "said the mayor, who says rely on Minister Anne Ouloto, President of the Regional Council of Cavally to bring to the government the expectations of the people. He hoped that the expropriated populations would be financially compensated and that they would receive support to continue their main activities such as cocoa farming and rubber growing.
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Le parc national de Taï (5.400 km2) est aujourd'hui l'une des rares forêts primaires de l'Afrique de l'Ouest. Pour le sauvegarder, l'Unesco l'a classé en 1981 ''patrimoine mondial de l'humanité...