Contribution short abstract

Côte d’Ivoire is facing massive deforestation, leading the current government to new commitments to protect and regenerate national forests. In line with the “green neoliberalism” moment, these forests are funded by major donors. It is in this context that reforestation projects have emerged.

Contribution long abstract

Côte d’Ivoire is facing massive deforestation, leading the current government to new commitments to protect and regenerate national forests. In line with the “green neoliberalism” moment, these forests are funded by major donors. It is in this context that reforestation projects have emerged. This article analyses one such project, the Green Wall Project, which symbolises one fact: despite the highly political nature of reforestation, many reforestation projects suffer from a lack of funding. It underlines the fact that ‘the forest’ is not always the subject of political attention, even in a context of increasing discourse on the need for a shift in favour of environmental protection. However, this does not invalidate the idea that forests are the product of politics (Peluso and Vandergeest, 2001). On the contrary, it shows that the choice of whether or not to finance and invest in a reforestation project is itself the result of a political choice. Drawing on semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions in the two regions of Worodougou, this chapter examines the extent to which forests are political spaces, how and for whom. It demonstrate that the forest becomes political in that it becomes a political challenge for the agricultural sector, particularly in a context of new import conditions for cash crops in Europe.