The Future of The Tai National Park

• Conservation concerning the Tai National Park is incredibly tricky, as the locals are financially dependent on the farming. Cote d’Ivoire accounts for 43% of the world’s cocoa, making it the largest producer in the world (Landscapesinitiative.com). The production of cocoa greatly supports the economy and is a source of income for many small farmers in the area. If the cocoa farms were taken away, the economy would collapse and thousands of smallholder farmers would be out of a job.

International Union for Conservation of Nature,. 2015. IUCN Logo. Image. http://www.iucn.org/logo/.

• International Union for Conservation of Nature, or IUCN, is working on the conservation of the Tai National Park currently. Programme on Protected Areas in Central and West Africa regularly carries out assessments on how effective IUCN's management program is. In addition, they regularly train people to work as staff in the park; such jobs include ecotourism, environmental monitoring, wildlife inventories, and the development of management programs (Iucn.org).

• Although IUCN is actively working on the conservation of the Tai National Park, it does not seem to be doing the best job due to the lack of financial support, lack of resources, and the heavy dependency on international aid (Howard).  Although IUCN implemented a management plan from 2006-2015, it was discovered that there was a 50% reduction in the primate population from 2004/5 to 2009/10 due to poaching.

• It seems that, despite the effort IUCN and other programs have made on conserving the Tai National Park, due to financial issues and the lack of international support, the park is not improving as quickly as it should, if at all. If a better plan is not created, poaching will continue to kill the animals in the ecosystem and the farming will continue to degrade the flora diversity.

Sources:

Landscapesinitiative.com,. 2015. 'Wider Tai Forest Area - Côte D’Ivoire - Initiative For Sustainable Landscapes'. http://www.landscapesinitiative.com/en/ta--national-park---cote-d-ivoire.

Iucn.org,. 2010. 'IUCN - Saving West Africa’S Rainforest Remnants'. http://www.iucn.org/knowledge/focus/previous_focus_topics/2010_worldheritage/ground/?5590/Saving-West-Africas-rainforest-remnants.

Howard, Peter. 2015. 'Tai Forest National Park - Cote D'ivoire | African Natural Heritage'. Africannaturalheritage.Org. Accessed November 20. http://www.africannaturalheritage.org/tai-forest-national-park-cote-divoire/.