Feasibility study of the Wonegizi-Wologizi Forest Landscape Sustainable Management Project Liberia

Context of the service

Liberia, a biodiversity hotspot in West Africa, is home to 43% of Guinea's rainforests. However, the country has lost nearly 2 million hectares of forest, or about 20% of its total forest cover, due to deforestation.

To counter this trend, Liberia has established five protected areas and has committed to expanding its protected forest area to 1.5 million hectares, or 30% of its forest land.

Located in the North-West of the country, in the immediate vicinity of the Ziama Biosphere Reserve in Guinea, the Wologezi and Wonegizi massifs are still relatively intact, but are not protected and are under pressure from the local populations, who must support themselves.

In 2024, AFD commissioned a study to formulate a sustainable management project for these two forest areas. The stakes are high: to try to protect these massifs in the long term, while taking into account the rights and needs of the local communities who live nearby.

Services provided

Agrarian diagnosis, including a documentary review and a data collection mission in the province of Lofa and Monrovia: visits to communities bordering the Wonegizi and Wologizi forest massifs in order to understand their production systems and livelihoods (slash-and-burn agriculture, lowland rice farming, hunting, collection of NTFPs, etc.); interviews with local actors in rural development and natural resource management; interviews with key partners and stakeholders of the future project (Fauna ad Flora International, GRET, Forestry Development Authority, etc.);

Assessment of the vulnerability of the livelihoods of local populations to climate change: analysis of existing climate data and projections and the likely effects of climate change;

Identification of the main constraints and support needs of local producers, based on the agrarian diagnosis: analysis of the socio-economic and environmental issues related to human activities near the two massifs; specific analysis of food security, access to land and gender inequalities;

Formulation of the component relating to agricultural production systems and other livelihoods on the periphery of the future protected areas of Wologizi and Wonegizi, including a budgeting of the planned actions.

Summary of the service

Feasibility study and detailed design of the project Sustainable management of the Wonegizi-Wologizi forest landscape: agrarian diagnosis (slash-and-burn agriculture, lowland rice cultivation, hunting, NWFPs, etc.); assessing the vulnerability of livelihoods to climate change; identification of the main constraints and support needs of local producers; formulation of the component on agricultural production systems and alternative livelihoods in the periphery of the future protected areas of Wologizi and Wonogizi.