Côte d'Ivoire has suffered a serious forest loss and degradation; it is acknowledged that forest cover in the country was drastically reduced from 16 million hectares in the early 20th century to 3.4 million in 2015.

Agriculture is the main driver of deforestation and cocoa, the backbone of the Ivorian economy, is the main culprit. With the aim of reversing the ongoing destruction of its forests, Cote d’Ivoire has been engaged in the international REDD+ mechanism since 2011. As stipulated by the new Forest Code, it is steadily working to restore up to 20% of its original forest cover.

In 2017, the Council of Minister of Côte d'Ivoire approved the National REDD+ Strategy, consisting of a series of policies and measures to combat deforestation and forest degradation across the country.

Some of its deliverables were as follows:

-          zero deforestation agriculture in the cocoa, palm oil and rubber sectors;

-          community restoration;

-          sustainable forest management;

-          provision of monetary funding for the ecosystem services system;

-          geospatial planning;

-          and structural reforms for a transition into a green economy.

In order to carry out the above agenda, the UNDP Green Commodities Programme has worked closely with the United Nations Environment Programme’s Finance Institute (UNEP-FI) and the European Union’s (EU) REDD facility to implement the National Strategy of REDD+. Spearheading the initiative, the Government of Côte d'Ivoire anticipates to achieve zero-deforestation agriculture and engage its private sector in a more inclusive manner.

Fast forward to 2018, the National Strategy of REDD+ was able to facilitate an enhanced dialogue on deforestation-free cocoa supply chains between landscape level in the San Pedro region and the national level. The said dialogue consisted of lessons-learned workshops led by the German Corporation for International Cooperation (GIZ) and the REDD+ Secretariat (SEP-REDD), and a workshop for Civil Society hosted in partnership with the GNT-CI NGO. With an analytical component on the new Forest Strategy (MORE SPECIFIC) and the new Forest Code, this series of discourse has most recently been able to convene its participants to draft the future programme on forest governance.

GCP has also previously supported the country in engaging its private sector. Together with Cocoa Life, a major Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiative of Mondelēz International and the REDD+, UNDP Green Commodities Programme developed a set of recommendations for achieving forest-friendly cocoa in the country. The highlights of these recommendations are captured in a joint discussion paper released by UNDP in June 2017.

For further information, please contact:

Jean Paul Aka, National Commodities Advisor, at jean.paul.aka@undp.org