West Africa Forest Strategy (active portfolio)

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Activity Type: 
Activities Related to Cross-Sectoral Cooperation

The Upper Guinea Forest, which covers six West African nations, is being severely threatened by commercial logging, slash-and-burn and plantation agriculture, weak governance, industrial-scale mining, and unsustainable bushmeat hunting.  Civil conflict adds a further strain when refugees turn to the forests for shelter and firewood. 

Recognizing the threats to the Upper Guinea Forest, the World Bank is exploring what should be done, and what the role it should play.  To date, the Bank’s engagement has been country-specific and opportunistic. A more consolidated and consistent approach would increase the role that the Bank has in ensuring sustainable forest management and increase the efficiency and effectiveness of existing interventions in agriculture and sectors related to natural resources management.  And taking a regional approach would help identify common problems and solutions as well as strengthen the existing regional cooperation on forestry through ECOWAS Treaty, UEMOA Treaty, the Manu River initiative.

PROFOR is supporting the World Bank’s Africa region compile a study to identify

  • issues and opportunities for improved forest and proposed priority actions in each country (Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau);
  • opportunities to link to regional and international forest dialogue for a; ways to engage governments;
  • financing instruments, including carbon finance and forest funds
  • useful lessons from WB forest-related initiatives in other African countries (Benin, Liberia, Nigeria, Senegal, Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire, Sierra Leone, and Ghana)
  • a program for outreach, partnership, and action

The findings aim to inform a World Bank West Africa Forest Strategy that would address sustainable management of tree and forest resources in West African countries. The forest strategy will inform the World Bank Environment Strategy for Africa that would be used coordinate with the broader donor community. The aim of the strategy is to ensure conservation and sustainable use of forests, the maintenance of forest ecosystem services, and the fair and equitable allocation of revenues and benefits from forest resources.