This text is part of the special International Cooperation section
The $16 million project funded by Canada aims to promote the role of women in this fight.
Biodiversity is high in the wooded savannahs and gallery forests of the Middle Bafing national park, inaugurated in 2017. The sector notably constitutes an important sanctuary for 4,000 West African chimpanzees, a subspecies considered endangered. critical of extinction by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). The park is also located in the heart of a country considered the “water tower” of West Africa. With numerous rivers, Guinea is located at the head of the Niger River, the third largest river on the continent, which irrigates many countries in West Africa.
The state of ecosystems in Guinea can thus have consequences on a regional scale, notes Amadou Mouctar Balde, director of programming for the Women Pro-Forests project for the Union of Agricultural Producers Development International (UPA DI). “These protection efforts can help ensure the sustainability and flow of these rivers,” he illustrates. And this is particularly important in the context of global warming.
The country contributes proportionately little to global greenhouse gas emissions. With around 14 million inhabitants (a little less than half of the Canadian population), Guinea emits less than 1% of CO emissions2 of Canada according to World Bank figures for the year 2020. Despite everything, the country must juggle numerous climate-related upheavals.
“There are more droughts and more floods, a delay in the rains, a drop in the flow of the Bafing River, a drop in agricultural yields, an increase in water-borne and fungal diseases,” lists Caroline Mailloux, program manager, climate change expert at UPA DI.
These effects disproportionately affect women in rural areas, whose livelihood depends on agriculture, livestock or harvesting, notes Mamadou Tafsir Diallo, responsible for overall management of the project with UPA DI. But according to him, women can also have a leading role to play in increasing the resilience of their communities in a changing world. The Women Pro-Forests project is counting on women and young women living in and near the Middle Bafing national park to kill two birds with one stone: preserve biodiversity and adapt to changes. climatic.
The project is implemented by UPA DI in association with the Canada Research Chair in Ecological Economics at the University of Quebec en Outaouais (CRCEE-UQO). Several other Canadian and Guinean partners are also participating in the effort, including the ecological firm Habitat, the international human rights education center Equitas, the West African Science Service Center on Climate Change and Adapted Land Use (WASCAL) and the Confederation National Peasant Organizations of Guinea (CNOP-G). Femmes Pro-Forêts benefits from an investment of $16 million between 2023 and 2026 from Global Affairs Canada as part of the Climate Partnership initiatives.
Protecting biodiversity, a guarantee of resilience
“One of the activities that we are going to carry out is participatory mapping,” explains Julie Lafortune, director of the Canada Research Chair in Ecological Economics at the University of Quebec in Outaouais. This will make it possible to identify the natural resources on which women depend the most, to better understand their use of the territory and resources such as wood or shea nuts. This allows us to prioritize our actions in these areas. »
The project will put forward practices linked to agroforestry or agroecology, green entrepreneurship and the valorization of non-wood forest products such as shea, honey or néré (an important fruit tree in the diet). and traditional medicine), specifies Caroline Mailloux. Canadian partners will also transfer knowledge and skills for long-term park management, such as the establishment of payment systems for ecosystem services or biodiversity monitoring plans.
“We are going to see the needs that are felt in the communities to implement adapted and concrete responses,” continues Mamadou Tafsir Diallo. We will promote shea harvesting practices that are respectful of the environment and agricultural practices that increase productivity and avoid burning fields. We will also set up nurseries for reforestation or even improved stoves requiring less wood for cooking rice. » The project also tries to develop positive masculinity. Its primary target is women, but the indirect beneficiaries also include men and families. »
“It is an important project which allows women to apply new knowledge about nature and which allows women to participate in the governance of these resources,” appreciates Mr. Diallo. Here, the taxes of Canadian citizens bring a change in favor of the development of women. And in Africa, when the standard of living and training of women changes, it has a direct effect on the development and education of the next generations. »
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