The WACA Project, West African Coastal Management Program, signed an agreement with the Ivorian Office of Parks and Reserves (OIPR) on Wednesday, October 14, 2020 in Abidjan for the conservation and restoration of ecosystems in the parks of Azagny and Ehotilé Islands.

On behalf of the West African Coastal Management Project (WACA), the agreement was signed by Mr. Delfin Abé Ochou, country project coordinator (Côte d'Ivoire). The part of the OIPR was initialled by Colonel-Major Tondossama Adama, Director General of this body.

The Chief of Staff, representing the Ivorian Minister of Environment and Sustainable Development, Mr. François Kouablan, emphasized that the action plan of this convention extends over a period of 4 years (2020 - 2023).

“Under this agreement, the WACA Project will provide the OIPR with funding of 200 million CFA francs to carry out activities established by consensus”, underlined Mr. Kouablan.

“I can reassure you that the OIPR will make every effort to carry out all the activities included in the action plan, paying particular attention to supporting the populations living near these protected areas,” said Colonel-Major Tondossama Adama.

The OIPR, he added, plans to fully involve local populations in the project in order to encourage them to take initiatives to protect these “fragile mangrove ecosystems”.

The last decade has been marked by an outbreak of natural and man-made disasters with the consequences of the destruction of biological diversity, and especially significant land losses estimated between 10 and 20 meters per year.

These phenomena are in particular at the root of coastal erosion, which undermines the resilience of inhabitants living on the coast, observed the Director General of the OIPR.

The WACA program integrates two protected areas in Côte d'Ivoire into its field of intervention: the Azagny National Parks and the Ehotilé Islands. It also aims to enable the preservation of the Ivorian coastline.

Financed by the World Bank for an amount of around 16 billion CFA francs for the benefit of the State of Côte d'Ivoire, the WACA project extends over a period of five years, from 2018 to 2023. It also provides for the rehabilitation and reforestation of mangrove fields in the Grand-Lahou lagoon complex (South Ivorian), as well as in the Azagny and Ehotilé Islands parks, placed under the exclusive management of the OIPR.

As a reminder, the project management of component 1 of the project on the regional integration of the programme is provided by UEMOA and the delegated project management is entrusted to IUCN, which has set up a regional support office (WACA/BAR).

For more information, contact:

• Abé Delfin OCHOU ochou.delfin@gmail.com, WACA Ivory Coast Coordinator
• PRICE Thomas Louis Thomas.price@ext.iucn.org, WACA Coordinator