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Forest Conservation Fund

Protecting the Tanoe-Ehy Forest in Cote D'Ivoire
Forest Conservation Fund

Tanoe-Ehy Forest: a Project of the Forest Conservation Fund

www.fundforests.org/tanoeehy-forest

Tanoe-Ehy forest is supported by the Forest Conservation Fund (FCF), whose mission is to protect and conserve forests one hectare at a time. FCF is a not-for-profit Foundation, decentralizing conservation by empowering Indigenous Peoples, local NGOs and communities and private sector actors to protect forest under their control.

Your investment in Tanoe-Ehy Forest will do more than just sequester carbon from the atmosphere– it will improve livelihoods and governance structures for local people, protect critical habitats and biodiversity, launch a biodiversity assessment to help find a potentially extinct primate and set the foundations for establishing a transboundary conservation area with neighbouring Ghana – helping to crack down on illegal logging and bushmeat hunting.

Critically Endangered roloway guenon (Cercopithecus roloway - just 300 individuals left)Endangered white-napped mangabey (Cercocebus lunulatus - around 450 individuals left)Critically Endangered white-thighed black and white colobus monkey (Colobus vellerosus - approx. 195 individuals left globally)

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Why you can feel confident that balancing your carbon through FCF is hugely beneficial for nature:

  • The Tanoe-Ehy ecosystem is rich in endangered species and high levels of biodiversity. Species-rich forests can sequester up to 40 times more carbon than monocultures
  • The area is home to one of the largest remaining tracts of rainforest in Ivory Coast
  • This forest is home to three of the most endangered primates in the region: the Roloway guenon, the White-napped mongabey, and the Miss Waldron's red colobus was last seen in this forest, but may already be extinct
  • FCF has identified a multiple award-winning conservation project empowering eleven communities to protect their forests from logging, mining, and conversion to oil palm plantations or cocoa farms.
  • The project is led by local biologists in collaboration with local communities, so it is science-driven and sensitive to the needs and wishes of local people
  • These project leaders know the wildlife, threats, challenges and solutions best
  • As a small organisation (just three staff), FCF are light on their feet – that means their overheads are small and most of the money will go directly to the project

See a map of Guinean Forests of West Africa below.

The Issue

  • The Upper Guinean Forest Ecosystem of West Africa is a biodiversity hotspot as it is; one of the world’s critical primate conservation areas and is ranked among the world’s most important regions for mammalian diversity
  • But the hotspot is severely threatened having lost 85% of its native vegetation cover to commercial logging, slash-and-burn and plantation agriculture, weak governance, mining and unsustainable bushmeat hunting
  • Remaining forests are mostly fragmented and subject to increasing human and climate pressures – fragmented forests open up entry points for increased bushmeat hunting
  • Ivory Coast in particular lost a net of 12,591km2 of forests between 2000 and 2012

Tanoe-Ehy project location (www.globalforestwatch.org/map) Primary forests, Tree cover, Tree cover loss and project location across Ivory Coast (www.globalforestwatch.org/map)

The Solution for Tanoe-Ehy

The Tanoe-Ehy project aims to improve the conservation status of four of the most endangered primates in Africa: the Critically Endangered roloway guenon (Cercopithecus roloway - just 300 individuals left) and white-thighed colobus (Colobus vellerosus - approx. 195 individuals left), the Endangered white-napped mangabey (Cercocebus lunulatus - around 450 individuals left) and the possibly Extinct Miss Waldron’s red colobus (Piliocolobus waldroni - maybe just a few individuals left). The Tanoe forest also houses the Vulnerable Olive colobus (Procolobus verus), important populations of the Critically Endangered slender-snouted crocodile (Mecistops cataphractus) and the Vulnerable black-bellied pangolin (Phataginus tetradactyla), at least 33 endemic and/or threatened plants species, 22 species of fishes, 274 species of birds including twelve of conservation concern and 38 species of amphibians including ten of conservation concern.

The Miss Waldron’s red colobus was assumed extinct until Scott McGraw, a professor of primate anthropology at Ohio State University, surveyed Tanoe-Ehy forest in 2000 and 2001. While his team didn’t observe these species directly, they were presented with a monkey’s tail by a hunter that DNA testing suggested was Miss Waldron’s. Soon afterwards, they were sent a photograph of what was almost certainly a freshly killed waldroni, reviving hope of rediscovery. Since then, Inza Koné, chair of the African Primatological Society and FCF Grants Committee member has been tasked with searching for the species. So far, his team is still looking.

The solution is to work with the local people of Tanoe-Ehy to protect these species’ habitat, creating a number of co-benefits for the local and global population – carbon being just one of them

Community Capacity Building and Livelihoods

  • Training, running and monitoring of community-based conservation and development associations
  • Incentivising the associations through competition for an award for the three best associations
  • Establishing botanical gardens to restore degraded lands for education and conservation
  • Restoring trees in 10 ha of farmland in each village to increase farm resilience, habitat connectivity and carbon storage
  • Restoring a buffer zone along the edge of the forest to further protect native species from edge effects
  • Promoting alternative livelihoods and diversified sources of income through vegetable farming

Biodiversity monitoring, Outreach and Awareness Raising

  • Training and equipping the biodiversity monitoring and surveillance teams
  • Running patrols and conducting surveys using patrol and camera trap data
  • Publication of newsletters and special broadcasting on local radio
  • Hosting an annual Primate Conservation Festival
  • Developing visual communication materials (e.g. T-shirts, posters, banners, signboards etc.)

Biodiversity surveillance in Tanoe-Ehy Forest

Protected Area Infrastructure and Establishing a Transboundary Conservation Area

  • Building a weather station, biomonitoring camps, a research station water tower and storage rooms
  • The purchase of tree climbing equipment, teaching equipment and project vehicles
  • Hosting a joint workshop with Ghanaian villages
  • Exchange visits for community leaders between Ghana and Ivory Coast

Carbon impact

The Tanoé Ehy project protects a total of 10,817 hectares of forest

  • This area of forest is estimated to store 995,164 tCO2e of carbon, and
  • Estimated to sequester 34,072 tCO2e every year.

Support Tonoe-Ehy Forest project with your carbon investment

The Forest Conservation Trust offers managed conservation credits to purchase, each of which will sequester 1 tonne of CO2e; which a customer can buy to balance their carbon emissions, and have amazing co-benefits in the Tanoe-Ehy Forest.