Tanoe-Ehy Forest

South-eastern Ivory Coast is a high priority area for primate conservation in West Africa. Home to one of the largest remaining tracks of rainforest in the country, Tanoé-Ehy supports three of the most endangered primates in the region: the Roloway monkey, the White-thighed colobus and the Miss Waldron's red colobus. These species are threatened by unsustainable forestry practices, conversion to oil palm and hunting for bushmeat by impoverished and ill-informed local communities. Beside primates, the Tanoé-Ehy forest houses at least 33 endemic and threatened plant species, two endemic fish species, ten endemic amphibians species and more than 19 bird species of conservation concern and provides critical resources and cultural values for neighbouring communities.

FCF has identified a multiple award-winning conservation program empowering eleven communities to protect their forests from conversion to oil palm plantations, cocoa farms, logging and mining projects. The project has several different components:

  • Sustainable agroforestry and the development of green value chains

  • Awareness raising and environmental education

  • Community organisation and capacity building

  • Biodiversity monitoring by local communities and additional interdisciplinary research


GRANTEE TEAM

The 11 villages are collectively the traditional owners of the forest. In 2006, they established a multiple level organization to ensure the conservation of the forest, and in 2009, the government established a National Committee entrusted with the designation process of the Tanoé-Ehy forest as a community-managed reserve. Finally, in 2021 the communities received official notification that they are the legal owners and stewards of the forest, ensured by the Wildlife Division of the Ministry of Environment. CSRS (the Centre Suisse de Recherches Scientifiques en Côte d’Ivoire), a research centre established in Ivory Coast since 1951, has worked closely with the communities since 2009 and has signed an agreement with them to help them manage the area. CSRS is the FCF Grantee, and will use funding to lead biological surveys, socio-economic studies, participatory development of forest management rules, fundraising, and supervision of forest demarcation by an official surveyor.

BIODIVERSITY

The Tanoé-Ehy Forest is one of the latest refuges for four of the most Endangered primates of West Africa: the Critically Endangered roloway guenon (Cercopithecus roloway - just 300 individuals left) and white-thighed colobus (Colobus vellerosus - approx. 195 individuals left), the Endangered white-napped mangabey (Cercocebus lunulatus - around 450 individuals left) and the possibly Extinct Miss Waldron’s red colobus (Piliocolobus waldroni - maybe just a few individuals left).

The Miss Waldron’s red colobus had been assumed extinct until Scott McGraw, a professor of primate anthropology at Ohio State University, surveyed Tanoe-Ehy forest in 2000 and 2001. While his team didn’t observe these species directly, they were presented with a monkey’s tail by a hunter that DNA testing suggested was Miss Waldron’s. Soon afterwards, they were sent a photograph of what was almost certainly a freshly killed waldroni, reviving hope of rediscovery. Since then, Inza Koné, chair of the African Primatological Society and FCF Grants Committee Chair has been tasked with searching for the species. So far, his team is still looking.

The Tanoe forest also houses the Vulnerable Olive colobus (Procolobus verus), important populations of the Critically Endangered slender-snouted crocodile (Mecistops cataphractus) and the Vulnerable black-bellied pangolin (Phataginus tetradactyla), at least 33 endemic and/or threatened plants species, 22 species of fishes, 274 species of birds including twelve of conservation concern and 38 species of amphibians including ten of conservation concern.

THREATS

The main threats are poaching (practiced by residents of Ivory Coast as well as by people coming from neighboring Ghana), logging, chainsaw milling, and small-scale agricultural clearing. The forest was once threatened by a plan for an industrial agricultural project but conservationists managed to stop this under the leadership of the CSRS team. At the moment, intended gold mining projects at the periphery of the forest represent new potential threats in terms of pollution of the Tanoé River and indirect threats to the Tanoé-Ehy Forest. CSRS and communities will be vigilant and take actions for that activity not to be allowed.

PROJECT ACTIVITIES

Community Organisation and capacity building

  • The training, running and monitoring of community-based conservation and development associations

  • Incentivising the associations through competition for an award for the three best associations

Biodiversity monitoring and surveillance

  • Training and equipping the biodiversity monitoring and surveillance teams

  • Running patrols

  • Conducting surveys using patrol and camera trap data

Awareness raising and public outreach

  • Publication of newsletters and special broadcasting on local radio

  • Hosting an annual Primate Conservation Festival

  • Developing visual communication materials (e.g. T-shirts, posters, banners, signboards etc.)

Agroforestry and alternative livelihoods

  • Establishing botanical gardens to restore degraded lands for education and conservation

  • Restoring trees in 10 ha of farmland in each village to increase farm resilience, habitat connectivity and carbon storage

  • Restoring a buffer zone along the edge of the forest to further protect native species from edge effects

  • Promoting alternative livelihoods and diversified sources of income through vegetable farming

Building infrastructure

  • Building a weather station, biomonitoring camps, a research station water tower and storage rooms

  • The purchase of tree climbing equipment, teaching equipment and project vehicles

Establishing a transboundary conservation area

  • Hosting a joint workshop with Ghanaian villages

  • Exchange visits for community leaders

QUICK STATS

Area: 10,817 ha

Carbon saved annually through avoided deforestation: 123,462 T CO2. Note that we can provide carbon credits from this project for US$10/tonne.

Threatened Wildlife: roloway guenon, white-thighed colobus, white-naped mangabey, slender-snouted crocodile and the black-bellied pangolin

Grantee: CSRS (Research Institution)

Remaining budget to fund: US$ 326,480

Funding status: 5% funded through the Pond Foundation’s My Carbon Zero and Individual Donors

Commodities in this landscape: Cocoa, coffee, coconut, palm oil, timber, gold