Current Human Impacts

• The forest within the Tai National Park is ranked among the most endangered tropical moist forests in Africa. It is one of the last surviving primary rain forests in West Africa with rich biodiversity that includes both flora and animal species. In addition, the Tai National Park has been deemed a World Heritage Site and has multiple protection zones (Nandjui). Although the Tai National Park is considered of high importance, this has not stopped the farming of cocoa and coffee, slash-and-burn farming, deforestation for timber, illegal gold mining, or poaching.

In the photo above, we have workers taking a break from collecting the sap from rubber trees. As you can see, this photograph shows the monoculture that is so prevalent along the Ivory Coast and within the National Tai Park.
DiCampo, Peter. 2012. Rubber Plantation Farmers, Ivory Coast. Image. http://pulitzercenter.org/reporting/ivory-coast-economy-cocoa-rubber-farming-crops.

• The human impact on the rainforest within the Tai National Park is quickly degrading the ecosystem and destroying the biodiversity as plants and animals are killed off. Slash-and-burn farming demolishes the ecosystem and the home of many animals in the area. In addition, coffee and cocoa farming creates monoculture that eliminates the diversity of the rainforest. Poaching is quickly killing off the animals that reside in the Tai National Park, for example, it is incredibly detrimental to the African forest elephant population, which has decreased significantly in the last 30 years due to poaching (wwf.panda.org).

Breuer, Thomas. 2014. Endangered Elephant, Ivory Coast. Image. http://inhabitat.com/ivory-coast-relocates-endangered-african-forest-elephants-in-an-effort-to-save-the-species/.

Sources:

Nandjui, Two. 2015. 'Protecting Tropical Rainforests In Côte D'ivoire'. Wwf.Panda.Org. http://wwf.panda.org/what_we_do/where_we_work/project/projects/index.cfm?uProjectID=CI0004.

Wwf.panda.org,. 2011. 'Poaching Contributes To Forest Elephant Declines In Côte D’Ivoire, New Numbers Reveal'. http://wwf.panda.org/wwf_news/?201553/Poaching-contributes-to-forest-elephant-declines-in-Cte-dIvoire-new-numbers-reveal.