16 March 2023 - the Cavally Regional Council hosted the first 2023 meeting of the Regional Steering Committee for the landscape platform of the Cavally Region, which was initiated by IDH and the Cavally Regional Council as part of the implementation of the "Initiative for Sustainable Landscapes" (ISLA).
More than sixty stakeholders from the public and private sectors, civil society, technical and financial partners operating in the Cavally Region gathered in Guiglo (Côte d’Ivoire) to develop the 2023 action plan of the Technical Unit, the operational body of the landscape platform, as mandated in a December 2022 order issued by the regional prefecture.
The need for Synergy for Sustainable Development of the Cavally Region
A synergy of actions must be developed for sustainable management of the Cavally region natural resources, a region that is renowned to produce cocoa and rubber in Côte d’Ivoire. For this purpose, this platform was established. In fact, this region has been heavily deforested as a result of agricultural activities (around 80% of its forest cover has been lost since 1960).
Under the leadership of the Cavally Regional Council, a regional plan for the development of the Cavally territory (SRADT) and a green growth plan (PCV) were developed to address this issue, with technical assistance from the Ministry of Planning and Development and financial assistance from IDH.
Memorandum of Understanding and Action Plan:
The stakeholders in the Cavally Region willing to implement the green growth plan, signed a memorandum of understanding in 2022, between the Regional Council, IDH and about twenty stakeholders (public sector actors, private sector, technical and financial partners, NGOs and communities), thus illustrating the importance for theses stakeholders to partner for the preservation of the region’s natural resources.
The participants in the Guiglo meeting were divided into five groups, each representing the five strategic groups (SG) set up within the Technical Unit. These Groups were built around the main agricultural commodities of the region and according to the initiatives, programs, and projects related to land use and to reach the goals of the green growth plan.
The strategic groups (SG) are: the Coffee-Cocoa SG, the Food Crops SG, the rubber tree culture SG, the Forestry and Wood Energy SG and the Community Social Inclusion SG. Finally, each SG presented his action plan during a plenary session, which was then amended and adopted by the platforms steering committee.
With this action plan, the landscape platform officially starts its activities. It will ultimately contribute to the implementation of projects and programs for forest cover restoration in the Cavally Region, to improve agricultural commodity productivity and access to sustainable financial resources for the Cavally region communities.