MiKaGo

The high plateaux of Togo are an ecological hotspot with a particularly high degree of biodiversity. Entire communities have settled around forest reserves to exploit their resources, often illegally. This constitutes a threat to the entire region’s biodiversity and ecosystem. The forests are insufficiently protected by the State. There are no suitable mechanisms for improving the use of protected areas and buffer zones by local communities.

Forest exploitation will continue until the population is provided with alternative and sustainable sources of income that contribute to food security, value creation and employment. Forest fruit production is one such alternative. Honey and shea nuts are in high demand on the national and international markets. The "MiKaGo" project aims to organise small farmers into cooperatives and train them in beekeeping and shea nut processing. They are provided with the equipment they need to produce the required level of quality.

In collaboration with the villages and traditional authorities, production areas are demarcated and allocated to cooperatives. Special attention is paid to managing these areas, improving their productivity and protecting their biodiversity and ecosystems. Transhumant grazing areas located around the forests are demarcated, and watering points established. This reduces pressure and conflicts between transhumant herders and farmers.

In each target community, community forest monitoring is implemented (via a mobile app) involving village associations for the management of protected areas (AVGAP), in collaboration with forest conservators in addition to municipal authorities. This enables the AVGAPs to alert the authorities to any infringement in order to curb illegal logging, develop the capacity of communities to participate in the decision-making processes that affect them and assert their rights, and reinforce the role played by civil society in forest management.