28 May 2010

The Upper Guinea High Forest in the West African countries of Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana represents a diversity of ecosystems made up of savannas, semi-deciduous tropical forests and tropical rain forests. Loss of forest cover and degradation of forested land continues at a rapid pace. The West African Forest Strategy (WAFS) formulation process requires an assessment of the sector to provide the World Bank with strategic direction aimed at creating a sustainable and productive forestry sector that fuels growth. The WAFS will contribute to the fine tuning of a wider African Forestry Strategy and assist the World Bank in consolidating its support to forestry in the region and providing a more systematic engagement on forestry issues at a regional level. LTS will undertake a forest sector analysis using a gap model framework, a policy options analysis and the development of the strategy and financing instruments.