The continued degradation of protected areas in Togo threatens the integrity of the country’s biodiversity. Established mostly during the colonial period, protected areas have, for nearly three decades, faced significant pressures, one major cause being the lack of local population involvement in their management process. Multiple attempts at development, based on conventional approaches, have failed due to local reluctance. Taking over from the State, the NGO JVE initiated, in August 2008, the pilot project “Participatory restoration and development of the FCA”, funded by IUCN Netherlands under its EGP programme.
The first phase of this project helped establish genuine co-management arrangements within the Assimé Classified Forest (FCA), and led to the development of a management plan aimed at restoring and rehabilitating the FCA to conserve its biological diversity and restore its full range of values (landscape, ecological, natural, etc.).
This project will implement one of the management options for this protected area: enhancing the FCA’s biodiversity value within a 100-m strip surrounding the protected area, through woody species enrichment planting, which could, in time, become a source of income for local communities.
• Protect 900 ha of forest against bushfires (pressure) and enrich degraded areas;
• Organise and train 11 honey producer groups in neighbouring villages, 11 mushroom producer groups, and 7 nursery grower groups;
• Protect threatened species on the periphery and build social capital for conservation;
• Strengthen local populations’ forest management capacity, enabling them to make informed decisions on forest development.
