Mar 20, 2023
“Our forests are degraded. The area around Dimbokro is now almost savannah. There are pockets of forest but most of the land is degraded,” observed Delphine Ahoussi, President of Association of Women Producers and Sellers of Biomass, or “Malebi” (meaning charcoal in local language), while surveying the 4500 hectares of classified forest in Côte d’Ivoire her group is bringing back to life with support from the Climate Investment Funds (CIF).
The degraded landscape of Dimbokro is unfortunately not unique in Côte d’Ivoire, a country that saw record levels of deforestation in the early 2000s. The forest cover, estimated at 37 percent in 1960, is now only 8 percent. But the country has a national ambition to reverse this catastrophic trend: “Côte d’Ivoire [wants to] reconstitute our forest cover, to reach 20 percent,” says Jean-Luc Assi, Côte d’Ivoire’s Minister of Environment, “that is why it is important to direct finance toward reforestation. The Climate Investment Funds (CIF) have been contributing [to this goal] and supporting us.”
Active in Côte d’Ivoire since 2016, the CIF’s Forest Investment Program (FIP) is investing in this national strategy, with a total funding of USD28.5M. A FIP project implemented by the World Bank supports forest-adjacent communities in reforestation activities. In Dimbokro and the Ahua forest area, SODEFOR (National Forest Development Agency) provides the technical guidance and selects local adapted tree species, and the Malebi Association implements training for youth and women. To rehabilitate and manage areas of the Ahua forest, Malebi leverages CIF funding for equipment, training and small works (e.g., boreholes), for example to have access to water to produce vegetable seeds and trees seedlings and irrigate plots.
A female entrepreneur in the charcoal sector, Malebi’s Delphine Ahoussi experienced firsthand how dwindling natural resources threatened her community. She refused to accept that charcoal, an indispensable source of energy for rural communities, had to be produced by destroying natural forests. The traditional agroforestry system called Taungya offered a better alternative, where subsistence crops and trees could be grown while bringing forests back to life. She started Malebi in 2008, and, since then, with CIF funding, the association has trained and supported 3000 people in looking after the land with the Taungya system, notably in the Ahua degraded classified forest.
Historically, women have not had equitable access to land in Côte d’Ivoire. The women of Malebi had to overcome major barriers in gaining access to the Ahua forest in 2011. As they bring to life their vision for the land, they face community norms that assign to women most of the responsibilities of running a household. “We are there in the morning feeding the kids and the men are already at work. The time to work is before noon, if you miss this you can’t turn back the clock,” explains Delphine. She insists that these special circumstances need to be considered when financing gender- transformative forest programs in rural communities. “We need these activities to make women happy, so financing needs to support them,” says Delphine.
In Dimbokro, women benefit directly from the cassava, okra and yam that flourish as part of the agroforestry system with acacia and teak trees. “Agroforestry is a very good scheme that can really help women to restore the environment, the forest or the ecosystem. But also, to improve their living condition because they are mixing crop and forest. The crop is for their livelihood. Trees are for humanity,” explains UNEP Champion of the Earth and Wangari Maathai Forest Champion Cécile Bibiane Ndjebet. She partners with Malebi through the African Women’s Network for Community Management of Forests (REFACOF), an organization that she founded that covers 17 countries in West and Central Africa.
This alliance between climate finance, women and forests is working. In areas where Malebi is active, communities have seen the return of rarefied land turtles and other forest species. They also welcome the reappearance of wild herbs that they use for medicinal purposes. “Women are doing excellent work here,” said Climate Investment Funds CEO Mafalda Duarte when she visited Dimbokro as part of a trip to Côte d’Ivoire to attend the CIF Africa Knowledge Exchange: Sharing Lessons on 15 Years of Impact event. “I am glad we have and will continue to support them in the future.”
