On February 26, 2022 in Abidjan, as usual, a whopping 1.330 billion FCFA was granted to the Ivorian Office for Parks and Reserves of Côte d'Ivoire (OIPR), by the Foundation for Parks and Reserves of Côte d'Ivoire (FPRCI), by the Foundation for Parks and Reserves of Côte d'Ivoire (FPRCI).

The announcement was made on Friday, February 25, 2022 in Abidjan, on the occasion of the signing of an agreement between the two structures, in the presence of the Minister of Environment and Sustainable Development, Jean-Luc Assi.

“For the 2022 financial year, the Foundation will award the OIPR a grant of 1.330 billion CFA francs to the OIPR to finance the national parks of Taï, Comoé, Azagny and Mont-Sangbé. This will bring to 8.480 billion CFA francs, the amount granted to the OIPR by the Foundation from the endowment fund since 2014,” said the chairman of the FPRCI board of directors, Bernard N'Doumi.

He said that the objective of its medium-term structure is to allocate, from the endowment fund, an annual grant of nearly two billion CFA francs to the OIPR for the conservation of protected areas, or 86.52% of the total area of the total area of the network of national parks in Côte d'Ivoire.

“After upgrading the parks, the OIPR must take up a new challenge, which is that of promoting tourism. If we want to protect the environment, parks must have an ambitious, realistic and attractive tourism development plan that can attract private-sector investors,” nevertheless questioned Mr. N'Doumi.

The President of the OIPR Management Board, Kouamé Kouassi, welcomed this traditional support. “This support was increased this year to 393 million FCFA and 570 million FCFA respectively for the Comoé and Taï national parks. Two other parks, namely the Azagny and Mont Sangbé national parks, will each receive 150 million CFA francs this year for the implementation of their operational plans for the financial year 2022,” he said.

Mr. Kouamé assured that his structure is indeed working on the tourist phase of certain protected areas, notwithstanding the obstacles. “I am presenting you with a major concern, the resolution of which can guarantee an even more effective protection of protected areas. This is the worrying expansion of the phenomenon of illegal gold mining, which in recent years has seriously threatened the integrity of protected areas, which are true reservoirs of national biological diversity,” he said.

The Minister of Environment and Sustainable Development welcomed the establishment of this mechanism, which has allowed Côte d'Ivoire to record “important achievements that reinforce the government's commitment to the preservation of the environment.”

Jean-Luc Assi expressed the government's gratitude to the donor, especially France and Germany, “for the invaluable technical and financial support they continue to provide to our parks and reserves.” He launched an urgent appeal to all other financial and technical partners in the country for the conservation of protected areas.

The FPRCI is an innovative and sustainable financing mechanism for national parks and reserves in Côte d'Ivoire.