Save 2000 chimpanzees in West Africa

Eco-guards are young people from the villages bordering the Cavally Classified Forest in Côte d’Ivoire, committed to protect their forest. Today, the Cavally Classified Forest is one of the last remaining natural forests in Côte d'Ivoire, where there is still intense forest cover and wildlife such as chimpanzees, classified as Critically Endangered by IUCN. The main threat to this forest remains the cultivation of cocoa, which causes the loss of forest cover and of wildlife habitat.
The eco-guards are regularly trained by the Wild Chimpanzee Foundation (WCF) on the use of guidance materials such as GPS and compasses, on information gathering methodology and data collection. They accompany the field missions organized by “Société pour le Développement des Forêts” (SODEFOR, the national authority in charge of the classified forests). Eco-guards record the areas cleared for cocoa farming, abandoned cocoa farms and intact forest in a systematic way. Furthermore, they collect all signs of illegal human activities such as poaching and mining, and the presence of large mammals in Cavally Classified Forest.
This monitoring developed by WCF, measures the evolution of the degradation state of the Cavally Classified Forest and allows orienting the management measures for the future. Between March and June 2017, monitoring was done on 1,025 ha of forest. The results show that in the surveyed area, which is under huge agricultural pressure, the proportion of intact forest is 61.80%, clearing represents 0.33%, plantations 35.71%, and 2.15% of abandoned plantations were identified. The number of abandoned plantations is good indicator for assessing the impact of law enforcement actions done by SODEFOR.
WCF urgently needs additional support for the protection of the last remaining classified forest in Côte d’Ivoire – Cavally!