Civil society organisations active in forest protection in West Africa have a new funding opportunity. The Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF) is launching a new call for applications for the sustainable management of Guinean forests in West Africa. The deadline for applications is October 15th, 2021. The project aims to propose a long-term vision for the sustainable management of forest hotspots along the West African coast of the Gulf of Guinea. The countries involved in the project are Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea (islands), and São Tomé and Príncipe.
The aim of this call for applications is to contribute to the preservation of a forest ecosystem whose benefits are essential to the biodiversity and survival of local communities. Liberia’s forests (which occupy about 43% of the Upper Guinea Forest) represent a significant portion of the remaining forest cover in the West African Guinean Forest Hotspot. However, the threats to these forests are numerous and destructive. Data from Global Forest Watch, a forest monitoring site, shows that the country lost about 4.4% of its forest cover from 2001 to 2012, measuring nearly 400,000 hectares, at an average rate of 9,000 hectares per year. This rapid loss, according to forestry experts, has reduced Liberia’s intact forest by about a third.
Nearly $10.1 million for conservation of Guinea’s West African forests
For CEPF, responses to logging and deforestation, among other threats, can only be effective or protect forests if they are prioritized and receive significant funding. For example, since 2016, CEPF has invested a total of $10.1 million for the conservation of Guinean forests in West Africa and the sustainable development of local communities.
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CEPF is a joint initiative of the French Development Agency (AFD), Conservation International, the European Union (EU), the Global Environment Facility (GEF), the Government of Japan and the World Bank. It is a global programme that provides grants to non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and other private sector partners to protect critical ecosystems. A key objective of the fund is to involve civil society in biodiversity conservation efforts.
Boris Ngounou