Wologizi - Wonegizi - Ziama

Stretching across the border between Guinea and Liberia, the Wologizi-Wonegizi-Ziama (WWZ) landscape is part of a chain of forest blocks stretching from Ziama in Guinea through Wonegizi and the Wologizi chain to Foya and the Gola forest in Liberia and Sierra Leone.
With its world-renowned biodiversity and vocation as an ecological corridor, WWZ represents one of the few viable and intact habitats for the African forest elephant (Loxodonta cyclotis), the western chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes verus), and the pygmy hippopotamus (Choeropsis liberiensis), three critically endangered species.
The landscape’s plants and soil biomass contain large stocks of carbon, playing a very important role in regulating the climate.
The WWZ landscape offers a mosaic of highly varied habitats, with altitudes ranging from 300 to 1440 m.

For more information:

• https://www.papfor.org/IMG/pdf/fiche_papfor-wwz_eng_-_maj_2024_-_09.pdf
• https://www.papfor.org/Community-engagement
• https://www.papfor.org/Development-and-support-to-sustainable-livelihoods-and-markets
• https://www.papfor.org/Support-for-protected-areas-co-management-and-transboundary-collaboration
• https://www.papfor.org/The-Ziama-Biosphere-Reserve

The PAPFor project began in the WWZ landscape in March 2022, with completion scheduled for mid-2025.
The aim is to help strengthen civil society in the forested area of Guinea and north-west Liberia to preserve the environment, prevent and resolve related conflicts and influence sectoral public policies.

The project focuses on three thematic areas:

• Environmental protection, climate change mitigation and adaptation,
• Recognition and defence of local rights to access, use and manage natural resources,
• The management and prevention of conflicts linked to these resources.

The ‘One landscape, one vision’ project, implemented by FFI and GRET, aims to improve local governance in 31 villages around the Ziama biosphere reserve, using a collaborative approach to preserve natural resources through participatory land-use planning. Since November 2023, the NGO AGIL has run several activities: an inventory of past interventions, the mobilisation of civil society organisations and awareness-raising campaigns on citizens’ rights. Training sessions have been organised for local stakeholders, in particular for authorities and technical services. 224 participants, including 79 women, were trained to integrate the conservation of natural resources into their community development plans.

For more information:
https://www.papfor.org/Strengthening-local-governance-structures-for-improved-protection-of-the-Ziama

In a context of high human activity and agricultural pressure, it is important to maintain physical connectivity between protected areas by helping communities to recognise and support the management of forest corridors on village land used as wildlife migration routes.

Participatory land-use plans and rural appraisals will be conducted by WWZ’s community governance structures to implement appropriate community planning and monitoring protocols.

Community agreements and participatory measures are being put in place to reduce connectivity bottlenecks in the landscape. Direct links to livelihood support will be focused on communities adjacent to priority corridors to provide clear incentives to maintain and improve their management.

For more information:
https://www.papfor.org/Promoting-connectivity-and-maintaining-tree-cover-through-community-engagement

A meeting to reactivate transboundary coordination within the Wologizi-Wonegizi-Ziama landscape was held with representatives from Liberia and Guinea on October 12, 2022 in Zorzor, Liberia. Liberia and Guinea initially signed a bilateral framework agreement in 2019 to formalise their commitment to work together for the effective conservation and sustainable management of the WWZ landscape and its natural resources.
The purpose of the 2022 meeting was to relaunch collaboration between the Forestry Administration (FDA) in Liberia and the Forestry Centre of N’Zérékoré (CFZ) in Guinea. It enabled representatives of the two institutions to meet and plan cross-border activities as part of the PAPFor programme’s intervention in the landscape.
The terms of reference of the cross-border steering committee were updated and a detailed plan for the first joint cross-border patrols was drawn up.

For more information:
https://www.papfor.org/Transboundary-coordination-restarts-in-WWZ-landscape

In the Ziama forest, farmers are faced with falling crop yields, loss of soil fertility and transformation of the forest to cultivated areas, etc. The ‘One Landscape: One Vision’ project is co-constructing an integrated, environmentally friendly approach with 12 riverside villages. Through ‘relay farmers’ working on demonstration plots, agroecological/agroforestry techniques and practices such as the preparation of fertilisers and biopesticides are shared through training sessions. Communities are also made aware of the harmful effects of synthetic chemical pesticides, in particular their toxicity for humans and the environment, as well as the safety and prevention measures associated with their use.

For more information:
https://www.papfor.org/Agroecology-in-the-Ziama-forest-an-alternative-to-monoculture-and-synthetic

As part of the ‘’One landscape, One vision‘’ project, GRET has been involved in structuring the cocoa and pepper sectors in six communities bordering the Ziama biosphere reserve. In collaboration with the Guinean House of Entrepreneurs, nine agroforestry Simplified Cooperative Societies (SCOOPS) have been set up. Several hundred growers and producers, around a quarter of them women, have been trained in governance, leadership and the use of administrative and financial management tools. This initiative aims to ensure the autonomy of the cooperatives and the sustainability of their activities. Inter-professional meetings have encouraged exchanges between producers, collectors, buyers and technical services to improve marketing and access to funding. A large number of people are involved in this project, which continues to provide technical training and material support.

For more information:
https://www.papfor.org/Agroforestry-cooperatives-set-up-to-develop-cocoa-and-pepper-in-Guinea-Ziama

The majority of cocoa plantations are affected by insect pests, prompting the owners to use chemical pesticides, which carry a range of risks, both for the health of the farmers and for that of ecosystems.

Since March 2023, the PAPFor programme has supported the introduction of different types of organic treatment, according to a well-established scheme involving trial plots and four types of treatment using local species. The initial results are positive, although we still need to wait one or two production seasons before drawing final conclusions about the possibility of replacing industrial products with local solutions that are cheaper and less dangerous.

The PAPFor programme supports law enforcement and ecological monitoring activities in Wologizi and Wonegizi. In Wonegizi, 15 community agents join ecological monitoring patrols and 24 auxiliaries join the FDA for the surveillance patrols.
The efforts of the bio-monitoring patrols (more than 1 500 km covered by PAPFor between March 2002 and January 2023) and the surveillance patrols (3 137 km) have enabled prohibited weapons to be confiscated, poachers’ camps to be destroyed and wildlife to be monitored. At the same time, these patrols carry out awareness-raising sessions on the sustainable management of natural resources.

These surveillance efforts are complemented by the installation of camera traps.

The PAPFor programme in the WWZ landscape is being implemented from March 2022 to April 2025 by Fauna & Flora International (FFI) with teams based in the UK (Cambridge), Liberia (Monrovia, Zorzor-Lofa County) and Guinea (Seredou), and by GRET with teams based in Guinea (Seredou, Nzerekore) and France. Agreements with the agencies in charge of protected areas in both countries have been established to ensure optimum ownership of the project.

The WWZ landscape will continue to be supported by the European Union as part of its NaturAfrica initiative, with significant initial support from the French Development Agency.