The children of Paulé-Oula will remember this day of Tuesday, May 24, 2022 for a long time.

Indeed, it is this village located in the Taï region that hosted the 2022 Edition of Pygmy Hippopotamus Day, initiated by the Pygmy Hippopotamus Conservation Program in Côte d'Ivoire. This program was born from a collaborative project between the Swiss Center for Scientific Research in Côte d'Ivoire (CSRS) and IBREAM (Institute for Breeding Rare and Endangered African Mammals) and the project managers are Prof. Inza Koné, Dr. Karim Ouattara, professor and researcher at UFHB and head of the research group on the Conservation and Valorization of Natural Resources (CVRN) at the Swiss Center for Scientific Research in Ivory Coast.

The pygmy hippopotamus (Choeropsis liberiensis) (Morton, 1849) is a rare and endangered species (IUCN, 2007) whose habitat is limited to the Upper Guinean Forest in Western Africa. This habitat has been greatly reduced by massive deforestation and agriculture as well as illegal mining.

The risk of extinction is great and there is a lack of capacity and a coordinated conservation strategy. Through awareness-raising activities with schools, the aim is to encourage the support of local communities, and especially children who train themselves but also make their parents aware of the forest, the animals that live there and the vital role they play for the future of the local community, with a particular emphasis on the pygmy hippopotamus.