Expansion of cash crops

The so-called «forest regions” are conducive to the development of several cash crops: cocoa and coffee, rubber and oil palm. On the Ivorian side of the landscape, family farming facilitated by the presence of agro-industrial centres and strong migratory pressure from populations coming from savannah regions in the north and outside the country have led to massive deforestation. As a result, no more than 5% of natural forests remain in the rural domain or even in classified forests, with the exception of Cavally Classified Forest, of which around 60% is preserved . Taï NP is now seriously cut off, with no connectivity to Grebo-Krahn NP further west.

On the Liberian side, the development of cash crops was interrupted by multiple crises that shook the country from 1989 to 2003. It is now resuming both in terms of agro-industries (in the south of the landscape) and family farming. In Côte d’Ivoire, the availability of land has dried up considerably, and the flow of migrants, some of them «climate refugees», is now heading for the forests of Liberia. Although direct attacks on national parks have not yet occurred (or been very few in number), there is a very real risk of these. The risk is even greater in other forest areas (Proposed Protected Areas, State forests and Community forests), particularly in the FMC-F management unit, where the connectivity corridor between Sapo and Grebo-Krahn should be developed.