Ivory Coast to expel cocoa farmers to preserve forests

  As part of efforts to protect forests in Ivory Coast, which has lost much of its rain forest to agriculture, the top cocoa producing Country  will launch an operation to expel about ten  thousand  illegal farmers from over 200 forest reserves starting from the Goin-Debe forest reserve. It is Ivory Coast's largest forest reserve.

The decision is part of efforts to protect forests in Ivory Coast, which has lost much of its rain forest to agriculture.

Speaking after a cabinet meeting in the commercial capital Abidjan,Ivory Coast's water and forests minister Bruno Kone said "we will immediately proceed with ... the identification of the occupiers of the Goin-Debe forest and the end of the occupations."

The operation  is expected to  involve the deployment of about 1,000 Defense and other Security forces personnel to the western Cavally region, where Goin-Debe is located, for an initial three months.

The 134,000-hectare Goin-Debe reserve has been at the heart of recent violence between immigrant cocoa farmers and local indigenous ethnic groups.

 Ivory Coast intends  to end illegal farming on protected lands within five years.
 The move is  threatening exports from the world's top grower and leading to complaints about human rights abuses.

Cocoa represents about 10 percent of the West African country's  economic output but this has come with great environmental costs.

Three-quarters of the Ivory Coast's  forests, have disappeared in the past five decades, mainly due to farming activities.