German Society for International Cooperation GIZ GmbH Tender Result

The natural forests of Ivory Coast have almost disappeared over the last 60 years. While the area covered by forest had been 16.5 million hectares in 1960, only 3 million still existed in 2020. The economic development of Ivory Coast is primarily based on the agricultural expansion of cacao, rubber and palm oil plantations which led to the devastating loss of the Ivorian forest. The remaining three million hectares are distributed mainly between the two natural World Heritage sites of Comoé National Park and Taï National Park. However, these areas are also threatened by increasing pressure through mining, agriculture expansion, the use of firewood and illegal hunting. As part of the German Development Cooperation with Côte d"Ivoire GIZ is implementing the technical cooperation project "Governance and Sustainable Management of Natural Resources in the Comoé and Taï areas of Côte d'Ivoire-(Pro2GRN)" commissioned by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and co-financed by the European Union (EU). This program is implemented with the Ivorian Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MINADER) in collaboration with other ministries including the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development and the Ministry of Water and Forests. Its overall objective is to improve the integrated governance of the Comoé and Taï regions to enable the use of natural resources in the long term, increase agricultural productivity and professionalise the management of protected areas. Pro2GRN is structured around 4 components: Component 1) focuses on capacity building for local groups to sustainably manage natural resources and increase agricultural productivity; Component 2) on capacity building for the Ivorian Office of Parks and Natural Reserves (OIPR); Component 3) on providing to the government experiential knowledge of development cooperation; and Component 4) on the introduction and dissemination of agroforestry measures. In 2022, the project was expanded to additionally work in the Bossématié area as one of the few still forested regions in the southeast of Côte d'Ivoire and to integrate additional forestry measures. The overall project has a duration from 02/2020 to 12/2025 and a budget of EUR 23,800,000 for the German contribution.