Earthworm Foundation and the Swiss Center of Scientific Research in Ivory Coast (CSRS in French) will be working together to protect forests reserves, and support smallholders and communities living around forests. A partnership agreement was signed February 25, 2020, making official a collaboration that started two years ago.

“We are happy to work with the CSRS. This will help us bring research eyes to what we do with businesses and communities in respecting people and nature,” said Gerome Tokpa, Earthworm Foundation regional manager in West Africa.

For Professor Inza Koné, Director of the CSRS, “the partnership with Earthworm Foundation is good in a way where it puts together a research institute whose core activity is generating evidence and a non-profit organisation with experts that use research evidence to get positive social impact.”

In the past, Earthworm Foundation linked CSRS and businesses to help researchers better understand companies’ concerns about conservation. In 2019, CSRS provided data to Earthworm Foundation for a satellite interpretation project of the Grebo-Krahn National Park in Liberia.

Professor Koné is also a member of the Grants Committee of the Forest Conservation Fund, to be launched in May 2020 by Earthworm Foundation. This fund allows companies to invest in helping communities and suppliers conserve forests, thereby allowing them to deliver deforestation-free products. Professor Koné brings his expertise in forest conservation, especially the Tanoé-Ehy Forest in eastern Ivory Coast – which won him the Whitley Award for Nature in 2012.