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| Cocoa farmer inside Mont Peko National Park Image source: lesoir.be |
Before the morning mists
had broken over Côte d'Ivoire's Mont Peko National Park, thousands of newly
homeless cocoa farmers and their families began to stir, fetching water and
lighting cooking fires outside Sylvain Zongo's church at the forest edge.
Reuters
report continues:
"I
don't know what I am going to do. All I can do is pray to God, otherwise it
breaks my heart," the pastor said, surveying a scene more evocative of the
West African nation's civil war years than its relative prosperity today.
This
is the human toll of a government crackdown on illegal farmers that could leave
hundreds of thousands destitute, dent gross domestic product and inflame
tensions left over from years of unrest.
It is the
consequence of what may be Côte d'Ivoire's last chance save the most rapidly
disappearing forest in Africa, home to endangered chimpanzees, forest elephants
and the rare pygmy hippopotamus.
Since
independence in 1960, Côte d'Ivoire has built its economy - French-speaking
West Africa's largest - on cash crop agriculture, growing about 40 percent of
the world's cocoa, which makes up some 15 percent of its GDP.
While
the chocolate ingredient helped it become a relatively prosperous nation in a
desperately poor region, it also brought it to the brink of an ecological
disaster.
Côte
d'Ivoire lost 80 percent of its virgin forest between independence from France
in 1960 and 2010, according to the European Union. Another study by Ivorian and
French scientists estimated it had the highest rate of deforestation in Africa
- with 265,000 hectares cleared annually by 1999 - even before the onset of
political unrest that accelerated the destruction.
LAWLESSNESS
During
the 2002-2011 crisis, which included two civil wars, park rangers and forest
officials abandoned areas they were protecting.
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| Map of Mont Peko National Park |
The
34,000-hectare Mont Peko, which means "mountain of hyenas" in the
local Guere language, became a symbol of the lawlessness that reigned during
that period as armed warlords seized control of the land and sold off parcels,
many to immigrants from neighbouring countries.
The
government crackdown in Mont Peko is a significant step in ending illegal cocoa
farming in Ivory Coast's eight national parks, five nature reserves and 231
forest reserves.
Annual
production in Mont Peko alone reached around 10,000 tonnes, worth over $28
million in export value, a U.N. panel of experts said in a report in March,
though some exporters say the tonnage figure may be double that.
The
government had repeatedly told illegal farmers to leave the park since 2012,
but had not enforced its demand. On July 30, it formally issued a decree of
eviction and sent in troops to clear plantations, destroying cocoa trees and
settlements that housed tens of thousands of people.
"We
must end impunity and we dare to hope that we will finish this once and for
all," said park ranger Kpolo Ouattara, as his men pulled down the remnants
of the camp of Amade Oueremi, the park's most notorious warlord and a major
illegal cocoa grower, who was arrested in 2013.
The
evictions mirrored those that have taken place in parks and reserves across the
country since 2013, as the government has come under pressure from
international donors including the European Union to act to protect its natural
resources.
Tens
of thousands of illegal farmers and their dependents have already been removed,
and forestry officials say hundreds of thousands remain to be evicted.
A
survey by scientists from the Côte d'Ivoire and United States last year in 23
protected areas found that 13 had lost their entire primate populations while
five others had lost about half. Nearly three-quarters of forests surveyed had
been cleared of their forests and become cocoa plantations.
The
study estimated annual cocoa production from those 23 areas alone at 195,600
tonnes, equal to around 13 percent of national output.
"It's
inevitable that production will fall with the eviction of the farmers,"
said Ali Lakiss, managing director of SAF Cacao, a cocoa exporter.
But
scientists say the cost of doing nothing could be greater and its negative
impact on cocoa production could be permanent.
Karim
Ouattara of the Swiss Centre for Scientific Research in Côte d'Ivoire, one of
the institutions behind the survey, said the near total disappearance of
forests in eastern Côte d'Ivoire - once its main cocoa production zone -
several decades ago destroyed microclimates and altered rainfall patterns.
"It
(changes in rainfall patterns) led to a drop in cocoa and coffee yields. That's
why it is now referred to as the former cocoa belt," he said. "I think
the government is beginning to understand ... the consequences of the
destruction of the forest."
'I'M RUINED'
The
bulk of Côte d'Ivoire's roughly 1 million cocoa farmers ply their trade
legally, outside protected areas. There are no precise estimates of the number
of illegal farmers.
In
the short run, the human cost of the evictions is plain. The United Nations'
Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs estimated last month that
as many as 53,000 people had been driven from Mont Peko since July.
"I
came here because I was poor and dreamed of a new life. I spent all my savings
to get some land," said cocoa farmer Vincent Bingoure, holding back tears
as he wandered through the charred remains of the village where he lived inside
the park.
"Today,
I'm ruined."
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| Agents of the OIPR, one of the government agencies charged with managing protected land, patrol among destroyed cocoa plants inside Mont Peko National Park in Duekoue department, western Côte d'Ivoire August 18, 2015. (Photo by Luc Gnago/Reuters). Image source: avax.news |
Disputes
over land in the western cocoa belt have long pitted indigenous groups against
farmers, most of whom have migrated from elsewhere in the country and wider
region.
The
area was the scene of some of the deadliest violence during the two wars and it
is here that the bulk of evictions are planned.
Without
alternatives, some fear the displaced will spill into the surrounding
communities, causing friction in a part of Côte d'Ivoire where post-war
reconciliation is already struggling.
"It's
creating a situation where one spark would be enough to create serious levels
of tension and violence," said Louis Falcy, country director for aid organization
the International Rescue Committee, adding that authorities needed to integrate
evicted farmers.
Law
enforcement agents take a tougher line.
Kpolo
Ouattara, in charge of Mont Peko services, said the authorities had been
telling the farmers they needed to leave for nearly four years.
"Of course some will fail to understand, there will be outlaws," he said. "We must make an example of them."
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