Côte d’Ivoire: Post-Conflict Environmental Assessment
Publisher: UNEP
Date: 2015
Topics: Extractive Resources, Renewable Resources
Countries: Cote d'Ivoire, Cote d'Ivoire
Upon request of the Government of Côte d’Ivoire, UNEP conducted a comprehensive assessment of the status of the environment in Côte d’Ivoire in a number of key areas impacted by the 2002 civil war and unrest following elections in 2010, in which the incumbent President refused to accept defeat. In addition, the study also looked at how the institutions overseeing natural resource management and environmental governance were impacted by the conflict.
The Republic of Côte d’Ivoire is located in West Africa and shares borders with Liberia and Guinea to the west, Ghana to the east, and Mali and Burkina Faso to the north; to the south lies the Atlantic Ocean. The country covers an area of 322,463 km2, of which 318,003 km2 are land and 4,460 km2 water. According to World Bank estimates, Côte d’Ivoire has a population of 20.81 million spread across 31 administrative regions, twelve districts, and two autonomous districts.
Côte d’Ivoire gained independence from France in August 1960 and in the two decades that followed, made huge economic progress through growth in the export of various agricultural products, primarily cocoa. When the price of cocoa began to fall in the 1980s, the country fell first into economic decline and then, in the 1990s, into political turmoil. There was a military coup in 1999, and in 2000 conflict became open and widespread. Despite reconciliation efforts on the part of the key political actors, in 2002 a mutiny of disaffected soldiers in Abidjan grew into a full-scale rebellion. The rebels of the Ivory Coast Patriotic Movement (Mouvement patriotique de Côte d’Ivoire) seized control of the north of the country from the national government and from then on Côte d’Ivoire was in practice governed as two administrative units, with a buffer zone (termed the Zone of Confidence) in the middle. Abidjan continued to be the de facto capital of the National Government, while Bouaké, just north of the Zone of Confidence was the de facto capital of the forces controlling the country north of the zone.
In 2010, after a decade of negotiations, an election was held in which all the major political formations took part and people from all the geographical and social parts of the country voted. The independent election commission of Côte d’Ivoire declared Alassane Ouattara the winner, but the incumbent president, Laurent Gbagbo, did not concede defeat. As a consequence, violence broke out yet again. In April 2011 forces loyal to Alassane Ouattara captured Laurent Gbagbo and in May 2011, Ouattara took up the role of president.
The new government of Côte d’Ivoire, which came into power after the 2010 elections, made a formal request to UNEP for a post-crisis environmental assessment (PCEA). In responding to the request, UNEP conducted a desk study and remote sensing analyses and a scope of work was agreed with the Government for field work. Fieldwork for the PCEA was conducted in June and August 2013. A number of national experts joined the field work. Chemical analyses of the samples and further remote-sensing studies were conducted between August and October 2013. During 2014, the draft report was prepared and submitted to the government and external peer reviewers.
The report studied the following environmental issues which had direct or indirect linkages with the conflict;
- forests, including national parks and classified forests,
- environmental degradation of Ébrié Lagoon;
- environmental issues related to unplanned urban expansion;
- industrial and artisanal mining and their environmental footprint; and
- risk of oil spill along the Côte d’Ivoire coastline.