By IPS Correspondents
ABIDJAN, Jun 16 2007 (IPS)

In Côte d’Ivoire, the importance of a forest can go far beyond its environmental significance, as critical as this may be. Certain wooded areas are viewed as sacred.

“We have inherited these forests from our ancestors. They are a venue for traditional ceremonies…These forests also enable us to preserve our ancestral experiences,” Namogo Soro, a farmer in the northern village of Benguébougou, told IPS.

In the region of Korhogo, also in the north, each village has at least one sacred forest, which only the initiated are allowed to enter.

In the past, beliefs about sacred woods served to protect these places from destruction, says sociologist Marcel Gnando.

It is impossible to cut down trees there for commercial gain, observes Soro, noting that citizens are also concerned with environmental preservation of the forests.

Hilaire Gnohité, president of the Croix verte (Green Cross) non-governmental organisation, based in the commercial capital of Abidjan, puts at 36,434 hectares the amount of wooded land that has benefited in recent years from the respect for forest lands.

But now, population pressures and economic need are challenging these beliefs – and threatening the future of Côte d’Ivoire’s forests.

In this West African country, the leading producer of cocoa globally, fertile land is sought after. The lucrative cocoa trade has pushed farmers into illegal use of land in protected forests – especially in the west.

“All around the forests, you can see that several areas are exploited by subsistence farmers,” Ibrahim Savané, professor of environmental management sciences at the University of Abobo-Adjamé in Abidjan, told IPS.

Little by little, he added, the farmers make their way into the forests to stake out new fields: “In these forests, almost half-a-million farmers and their families have established themselves under the complacent gaze of the state.”

The greater the financial need, the more the cultural aspects of the forest are disregarded – opening the door to abuse of sacred and ordinary forests alike, observed Savané.

He suggests that government allows this because the farmers account for close to 15 percent of the annual, national cocoa production – even if this is at the expense of trees being chopped down, and forest land being burned to clear it for farming.

In May 2007, a fire ravaged a good part of the north-eastern Ira sacred forest, which covered over 16,400 hectares.

A few days later, close to 100 hectares of forest was destroyed during a fire in Yallo sacred forest in the west of the country.

In light of this, Savané is calling on officials to put an end to the exploitation of land around all forests, sacred or not.

An indication of how forests can be sustainably managed is given by the area of Man, in the far north-west.

“Some of our sacred forests have now become tourist sites,” Arsène Tétialy, from the region, told IPS. “They are home to canopy walkways that always draw many visitors.”

Traditional healers are also allowed to gather medicinal plants in the area, he noted. In addition, researchers are allowed to work there.

Notes Savané, “The sacred forests constitute a vital heritage for our people. If they are preserved, they can form a brake on desertification.”

The threat posed by land degradation will be highlighted Sunday, on the World Day to Combat Desertification.

This year, the day is being commemorated under the theme ‘Desertificaton and Climate Change – One Global Challenge’.

Rising global temperatures are said to be increasing the severity of droughts, which in turn are aggravating desertification in the world’s drylands.

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