Developing collaborative freshwater biodiversity research in Côte d'Ivoire
Like their counterparts across West Africa, freshwater ecosystems (rivers, lakes, ponds, marshes, swamps etc.) in Côte d'Ivoire support exceptionally high biodiversity and are of great importance to livelihoods and economies in the region. However, they face a multitude of threats, many linked to rapid socioeconomic development: urbanization, hydropower infrastructure, water use, mining, sedimentation, invasive species, and pollution from excessive fertilizer and pesticide use.
Effective conservation of freshwater ecosystems relies on up-to-date information on their locations and the distribution of species within them, in order to identify conservation targets and priorities. Information on the impacts of threats in these systems helps us to prioritize which threats to manage and work out how to do so. This information is also critical to communicating with the public, for example to demonstrate the simultaneous value and vulnerability of freshwater ecosystems.
The ALBORADA Research Fund allowed Dr Taylor to meet Dr Kamelan in Côte d'Ivoire for a week in March 2024 to develop a mutual understanding of the local environmental context and identify research opportunities.
To kick off our week together, we visited researchers from the Biosciences Department at Université Félix Houphouët-Boigny (UFHB) to learn about their past and current research. We organised a workshop on the state of conservation of freshwater biodiversity in Côte d'Ivoire and had discussion on the initial vision for our collaborative project. Attendees included researchers from the hydrology laboratory at UFHB, with various specialties (phytoplankton, zooplankton, macroinvertebrates, fish, socioeconomics of fishing, aquatic pollution), students from the doctoral school, and some members of the NGO SOS-Forêts (a national NGO which works for the conservation of biodiversity), all of whom offered valuable insights.
We spent the rest our week visiting key conservation stakeholders. First we met the director of the biodiversity project of the Directorate of Fisheries and Aquaculture, which is focused on monitoring and restoration in aquatic habitats across Côte d'Ivoire, but faces challenges from resource limitations.
Second, we visited stakeholders in the lower course of the Bandama River, the longest river in Côte d'Ivoire. Key threats to the river include construction of hydroelectric barrages, artisanal gold mining, and expansion of agriculture (upstream) and overfishing and cutting of mangrove wood for fish smoking (in the estuary). The impacts of these threats on aquatic biodiversity in the Bandama remain to be fully characterised.
Finally, we met the manager of Banco National Park, an urban forest and wetland habitat. Banco has been a National Park since 1953. It is unusual as an area of dense primary forest within an urban area (the city of Abidjan, home to over 6 million people), to which it provides clean water and an important recreational space. Although there have been studies on the terrestrial biodiversity in Banco, and some studies on the river running through it, the extent and biodiversity value of wetlands within the park remain unknown. This visit was the first step in collaborative work on freshwater biodiversity conservation in the country. Through interactions with local experts and stakeholders, we identified topics of interest to local partners and that would be feasible to study. We visited several potential field sites, meeting with local partners. Our discussions identified several key research questions and opportunities, including historical monitoring data that could be used as a baseline for impact assessments. We would like to characterise the wetlands of Parc National du Banco and quantify the impact of threats to freshwater biodiversity on the Bandama River. This work will explicitly contribute to a number of Sustainable Development Goals and improve our knowledge of the distribution and state of biodiversity, and of the threats it faces, which will in turn inform conservation decision making. We are currently developing a proposal for further funding to investigate these questions.
We are extremely grateful to the ALBORADA fund for supporting this work and kick-starting what should be a productive collaboration. Dr Taylor also wishes to thank Université Félix Houphouët-Boigny and SOS-Forêts for their warm hospitality.
By Dr Nigel Taylor, University of Cambridge, UK and Dr Tanoh Marius Kamelan, University of Felix Houphouet-Boigny, Côte d’Ivoire