The BIOPAMA programme invited the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development (MINEDD) to take part in the first edition of the African Protected Areas Congress scheduled for March 7-12, 2022 in Kigali, Rwanda.

BIOPAMA and OBAPAO visit to the Côte d’Ivoire Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development (MINEDD)

This invitation took place during a hearing on the sidelines of the General Assembly of the African Network of Coaches for the Management Effectiveness of Protected Areas (RACEGA Pacegap) in Abidjan, granted by MINEDD to the delegation led by the coordinator of the BIOPAMA programme in Western and Central Africa, Ms. Tanya Merceron. She underlined the importance of this meeting as the largest exchange platform that Africans experts and decision makers will have for the discussion of major environmental and climate issues.

The delegation also included Adja Aïssatou Sy Seydi, representing the West African Observatory for Biodiversity and Protected Areas (OBAPAO) and Colonel Issa Diarrassouba, head of the control and planning unit of the Ivorian Office of Parks and Reserves (OIPR) and executive secretary of RACEGAP.

Adja Aïssatou Sy Seydi (OBAPAO) and Tanya Merceron (BIOPAMA IUCN)

The discussions explored the different possibilities to strengthen the contribution of Côte d’Ivoire to the activity of RACEGAP. Adja Aïssatou Sy Seydi, requested to strengthen of the mechanism for the feedback of information between OIPR and OBAPAO allowing harmonized data to inform international targets such as the Conventional Biological Diversity reports. The delegation also requested Côte d’Ivoire to support the recognition of OBAPAO as a reference center in the sub-region, as desired by the CBD in the context of the post 2020 negotiations for the Global Biodiversity Framework.

For his part, Parfait Kouakou Kouadio, chief of staff to the Minister of Environment and Sustainable Development, promised to faithfully transmit the content of the discussions to his principal.

Representatives of the the Côte d’Ivoire Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development (MINEDD)