The ceremony took place on Wednesday, June 15, 2022, starting at 14:00, in the banquet hall of the Manhattan Suite Hotel, located in Abidjan, Cocody, Riviera Attoban. The objective of the project is to contribute to the intensification and sustainability of REDD+ financing mechanisms at the national level in order to combat deforestation and forest degradation and support the effective management of protected areas. In this perspective, a strategy based on the following three components was adopted.

1) Support for the development of an institutional, political and legal framework favorable to REDD+ and Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES). The project will support the modification or establishment of institutional, political and legal frameworks conducive to the integration of rural land management and natural resource management with PES and REDD+ mechanisms in different sectors.

2) Establishment of a national financial mechanism and management of the application of PES in mangroves. The project will support the establishment of this mechanism within communities, in a perspective of exemplarity. Component 2 also includes an important mangrove restoration component involving NGOs and communities directly benefiting from the services provided by the mangrove ecosystem.

3) Sustainable management of poorly supported protected areas and surrounding ecosystems. Recognizing the fact that well-managed protected areas are an asset for the in situ conservation of biodiversity and the adaptation to climate change, the project is part of a dynamic of consolidating these achievements.

As part of its implementation, the project plans to adopt a logo, as a visual communication medium. For this purpose, students from plastic and graphic art institutions were put into competition to propose a logo to the project team. This competition was led by the National Higher Institute of Arts and Cultural Action in collaboration with the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development.