Mountain Partnership

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Guinea

The four different regions of Guinea contain a concentration of all the relief characteristics encountered throughout western Africa; wide plains, high plateaux separated by sheer cliffs and mountain massifs cut by deep valleys. The highest peak in Guinea is Mount Nimba (1,752 metres). The mountain areas of Guinea are particularly important given that they are a source of water for the whole region of West Africa. In particular, the rivers Niger, Sénégal, Gambia and Mano all originate in the Massif Fouta Djallon to the west of the country.

New tracts of land are constantly being cleared for agriculture and this, combined with the tendency to overgraze, results in serious problems of erosion and poor soil quality. Mountain regions are inaccessible, water is scarce and the extreme poverty of those who live in these areas forces many to migrate towards the lowlands. Environmental problems are exacerbated by the fact that these areas are also intensively mined for mineral deposits.

Guinea's priority development concerns are therefore to repair and reverse land degradation, to manage watersheds appropriately, to conserve biodiversity and to create policies and legislation towards that end. Access to education, awareness-raising, capacity-building, food security and health are all key concerns. The country recognizes that it needs to formulate a strategy for sustainable mountain development, and that it also needs financial and technical assistance to do so.

Various national and regional projectsare currently ongoing in Guinea. A project for the Management of Natural Resources is being financed by the Guinean Government together with USAID. The Regional Programme for Integrated Management of the Massif Fouta Djallon involves eight states of the West African sub-region, and an integrated conservation programme for the ecosystem of the Nimba Mountains is being implemented through a tri-national programme by Côte d'Ivoire, Guinea and Liberia.

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