Protecting Africa’s forests
Inza Koné, Côte d’Ivoire’s first primatologist, has spent almost 20 years working in Tanoé-Ehy, one of West Africa’s last primary rainforests. The vast swampy forest, tucked away in the furthest south-eastern corner of his country, is home to animals and plants found nowhere else in the world. Koné has been researching its critically endangered species and creating a model for conservation centred on communities that live there.
Tanoé-Ehy contains at least 45 endemic species of plants and animals. Koné is particularly interested in the forest’s primates: “In these 11,000 hectares of swampy forest, we have some of the most endangered species of monkey in West Africa.” This includes the possibly extinct Miss Waldron’s red colobus, which has not been scientifically documented since the 1970s. However, locals continue to report sightings within the forest and Koné himself has heard its distinctive cries, hence the search continues.
