99% Of 34,000-Hectare Mont Peko National Park In Ivory Coast Destroyed By Illegal Cocoa

In Mont Peko National Park, thousands of leafless Iroko and Samba trees tower over a sea of lush plantations like headstones, a testament to the heavy environmental cost Ivory Coast has paid for a dramatic rise in its cocoa production. Ivorian officials say 99 percent of the park's 34,000 hectares have been destroyed by cocoa farmers taking advantage of the chaos wrought by a decade-long political crisis in the West African nation.

With the years of turmoil over, the government of President Alassane Ouattara is preparing to re-exert state authority by expelling tens of thousands of farmers from parks and reserves in an attempt to save the dwindling forests.

Mont Peko, with an illegal population of around 28,000, will prove the first test of the government's new policy. Evictions are slated for December and similar operations will follow in Ivory Coast's more than 200 parks and reserves.

"The role of a national park is not to produce cocoa," said Adama Tondossama, director of the OIPR, one of the government agencies charged with managing protected land. "Those people who are there are there illegally and we'll fight to get them out." But as it works to roll back decades of environmental destruction, the government faces a dilemma: can it foster conservation while avoiding social unrest and preserving the country's position as the world's top cocoa grower?

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http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/10/05/us-ivorycoast-cocoa-environment-insight-idUSKCN0RZ09H20151005