10 April 2024
Investing in the San Pedro Landscape - Collaboration and Community in Côte d'Ivoire
Proforest has collaborated with regional authorities, communities, and other partners to develop a comprehensive Management and Investment Plan for the San Pedro landscape in Côte d’Ivoire. This plan focuses on sustainable agriculture, forest protection and restoration, enhancing community living conditions, and improving land use governance. The landscape programme involves six communities with a population size of approximately 900,000. This new film provides an overview of the San Pedro landscape programme and the stakeholders involved in developing the Management and Investment plan. The video captures our engagement processes and our collaborative approach with local stakeholders and governments to develop and test landscape and jurisdictional approaches.
Côte d’Ivoire is the world’s largest cocoa producer. The San Pedro landscape is one of the main production landscapes in the country and a major sourcing area of cocoa, natural rubber and palm oil for many commodity trading companies. San Pedro plays a pivotal role in the local economy, with cash crops, especially cocoa, being predominantly produced by smallholders.
“A recent landscape study shows that out of the 600,000 hectares of land we have in our region, only 10,000 hectares can be considered as forest,” said LT Col Kouame Yao Jean; San Pedro Regional Director of Water and Forests.
Proforest, working with our partners, is promoting a more sustainable, long-term approach that aligns private-sector commitments to eliminate deforestation from supply chains.
The video is part of a three-year programme ‘Linking 'no-deforestation' supply chains and national climate mitigation initiatives’ funded by the International Climate Initiative (IKI) of the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection (BMUV).
The shared vision is to transform the San Pedro region into a more sustainable one where forests are safeguarded, restored, and biodiversity is conserved through climate-resilient agriculture, whilst uplifting community living conditions.
San Pedro needs sustainable investment for transformational change; and needs to build on the foundations Proforest and partners have laid to ensure long-term impact for the people and the landscape of San Pedro, said Daleba Kpenahi, Senior Project Manager; Proforest Africa.
Find out more about the San Pedro landscape: