The Republic of Benin is not a forest country like its peers such as Côte d'Ivoire,
Ghana etc. This is why the very first measures taken by the Beninese State in the preservation
of the environment and the conservation of nature consisted in the creation of a
national forest service and the adoption of forest policies and guidelines in favor of the establishment of a national
forest domain between 1940-1950. One of the forms of development of this
national forest heritage consisted mainly of afforestation actions with the technical support of SATEC and CTFT.
These actions made it possible to establish forests planted in some of the classified forests and
reforestation areas in order to increase the wood yield per hectare of these
wooded areas. The succession of years of drought and an accelerated degradation of natural resources
led the country to a national seminar on the fight against drought and desertification in April 1985.
One of the major resolutions of this seminar was the institutionalization of National Tree Day and the
National Reforestation Campaign. It is therefore appropriate for real forest companies to develop under the leadership of operators with an unwavering conviction in the profitability of the wood sector. Thus, decentralized authorities, local populations, economic operators and civil society have the obligation to act in common accord and to give themselves the duty and mission of supporting reforestation actions.
Based on this observation, the Ministry of the Environment and Nature Protection (MEPN)
organized a national seminar on reforestation from 11 to 13 May 2010.
This document is the report of the seminar. It presents the elements for the development of the national reforestation strategy. These elements will be selected in such a way that the national reforestation strategy addresses the
concerns at stake.