Abstract

Although they are damped by cultural and religious protection, heavy pressures are deteriorating Ivory Coast's sacred forests due to demographic and socioeconomic pressures which keep growing. That is why it is urgent to develop conservation strategies which will take into account the real needs of the concerned communities. This project will aim to catalog and characterize (typology, space distribution and deterioration) Ivory Coast's sacred forests. During a first 18 months phase, which will be followed by a second phase, researchers will develop a comprehensive protection strategy based on related local realities. A grant will be made to the Green Cross, an Ivory Coast non governmental organization (NGO), for the first phase of this program. The outcome of this project might be used by Ivory Coast's neighbouring countries which have the same problems.

Post-Project Summary

From 1996 to 1997, the Green Cross of the Côte d'Ivoire surveyed a total of 6 702 sacred forests covering an overall area of 36 434 ha. The distribution of the sacred forests by cultural region is as follows: the Gur cultural region, to the north and the north-east in the savannah and the pre-forest savannah (2 278 sacred forests covering an area of 7 659 ha); the Akan cultural region, at the centre, to the centre-east and the south-east in the pre-forest savannah and the forest (2 142 sacred forests covering an area of 15 769 ha); the Mandé cultural region, to the north-east and the north-centre in the savannah and the pre-forest savannah (683 sacred forests covering an area of 7 162 ha); the Kru cultural region to the west in the forest zone (446 sacred forests covering an area of 5 844 ha). Researchers identified three types of sacred forest: closed (42,76%); open (28,31%) and semi-open (23,27%). Only the initiated are authorized to enter a closed sacred forest. People, whether or not they are strangers, must undergo a ritual ceremony before entering a semi-open sacred forest. The information gathered allowed the researchers to develop a cartography of the sacred forests of the Côte d=Ivoire. The cartography, drawn up in a document edited by the Green Cross of the Côte d'Ivoire, covers: the distribution of sacred forests (number) by region according; the distribution of sacred forests (area) by region; the location of closed sacred forests (number) by region ; the location of semi-open sacred forests (number) by region; the location of open sacred forests (number) by region; the number of sacred forests by linguistic area; the distribution of sacred forests by linguistic area; the location of sacred forests by type of vegetation. Work continued in a second phase (100314).

Recipient Institution(s)