COORDINATION OF THE REGIONAL PROGRAM TO SUPPORt THE PRESERVATION OF FOREST ECOSYSTEMS IN WEST AFRICA – PAPFOR

COORDINATION OF THE REGIONAL PROGRAM TO SUPPORt THE PRESERVATION OF FOREST ECOSYSTEMS IN WEST AFRICA – PAPFOR

The Program to Support the Preservation of Forest Ecosystems in West Africa (PAPFor) concerns two francophone countries (Guinea and Ivory Coast) and three anglophone countries (Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria)

The creation of Protected Areas (PAs) has been one of the responses to the biodiversity crisis in the region, and the vast majority of biodiversity is now confined to Protected Areas and surrounding forest fragments. However, PAs in West Africa are divided into relatively small PA archipelagos. Moreover, these archipelagos form landscapes that are largely disconnected from each other and often PAs within a landscape are themselves isolated from each other. This high forest fragmentation threatens the long-term maintenance of many species and services if forest connectivity is not maintained across landscapes.

PAPFOR’s general objective is the sustainable management of biodiversity for the benefit of communities in West Africa. In addition to the specific objectives for the implementation of field activities in the six landscapes by different operators (not included here), two specific objectives are assigned to the “regional governance” component:

OS1: The networking of protected area managers concerned by the PAPFor Convention and their integration into the West African protected area network is effective and information is produced and shared.

OS2: The monitoring of the achievement of the objectives of the PAPFor financing agreement is effective through the supervision and monitoring of each contract of the Financing Agreement.