The regions of San-Pedro and Gboklè must mobilize to plant 315,000 trees during this year, announced, Thursday July 1, 2021, in San-Pedro, the regional director of Water and forests, Lieutenant-Colonel Kouamé Yao, during a day dedicated to operation “1 day, 50 million trees”.

Lieutenant-Colonel Kouamé invites the mobilization of all administrative authorities, private sector companies, NGOs (Non-Governmental Organization), technical and financial partners and especially the populations, for the achievement of this annual objective of the region at the end of the operation scheduled for October.

The assessment will be done by locality. It will take into account all the reforestation initiatives carried out by public and private actors. Lieutenant-Colonel Kouamé wants the regional management of San-Pedro to occupy the first place at the end of this annual reforestation report.

About 315,000 plants of various species produced by the Water and Forests services of San-Pedro and Gboklè are available. They may be made available to all those who are engaged in reforestation for the reconstitution of the Ivorian forest cover.

The Regional Directorate of Waters and Forests of San-Pedro records more than 141,700 trees already planted over an area of ​​more than 250 hectares since 2018, mainly in classified forests. The species selected for the operation are in particular, Fraké, Framiré, Mahogany, Bété, Mérina and Niangon.

The Ministry of Water and Forests is targeting 50 million trees this year, ten times higher than last year’s achievement. It strives, through its branches across the country, to instill in the populations the culture of reforestation, so that they contribute to the achievement of this objective and to the reconstitution of the Ivorian forest cover, and to maintain the ecological conditions conducive to socio- economic activities.

From 16 million hectares at the start of the 1960s, Ivorian forest cover today represents less than three million hectares. Faced with this alarming situation, the government developed and adopted at the Council of Ministers of May 23, 2018, a policy of preservation, rehabilitation and extension of forests which aims to restore three million hectares of forests and to increase to 20% the rate of national forest cover by 2030.

Source: Agence Ivoirienne de presse