The Wargiué bio-diversity zone was established in 1996 when 28 surrounding villages contributed 1,060 km2 of land to the Community-Based Natural Resource and Wildlife Management Project (French acronym: GEPRENAF) funded by the World Bank. The GEPRENAF project allocated $7 million and established three zones; Mont Tingui in central Côte d’Ivoire, Warigué in northern Côte d’Ivoire and Diéfoula in Burkina Faso adjacent to the Warigué. Each zone is managed by an inter-village leadership team (French acronym: AGEREF).

 

The aims of establishing the zones were to:

• help communities make better use of wildlife and secondary forest products

• promote ecotourism whilst incresing local revenue from wildlife

• monitor and control wildlife, particularly game populations, to establish effective off-take quotas in order to maintain a positive balance between speceis as well as ensure adherence to national hunting regulations.

 

The GEPRENAF team started micro-projects to improve the use of wildlife and secondary forest products, and introduced anti-poaching patrols to protect animals within the zones. By 2002 animal populations had almost doubled in preparation for safari hunting, however civil war in Côte d’Ivoire ended GEPRENAF activities in 2004 and much of the progress was lost. Today Diéfoula is modestly successful in safari hunting and micro-projects while Mont Tingui and Warigué struggle to re-establish ample animal populations and carry on micro-projects.