Ivory Coast (Côte d'Ivoire) presents a complex animal welfare picture shaped by its status as the world's largest cocoa producer (with associated deforestation impacts on wildlife), significant bushmeat trade, recovering chimpanzee populations, and growing economic development creating both welfare challenges and opportunities.
Ivory Coast once had one of West Africa's largest chimpanzee populations, but deforestation — driven primarily by cocoa farming expansion — has dramatically reduced habitat and populations. Taï National Park in the west is now the primary stronghold for wild chimpanzees in Ivory Coast, managed with support from the Max Planck Institute's Taï Chimpanzee Project, which has conducted long-term research on chimpanzee behavior and ecology.
The iconic research at Taï has documented rich chimpanzee social lives, tool use, and cultural transmission. This research has contributed substantially to the scientific and public understanding of chimpanzee cognition and welfare needs. Individual chimpanzees in the Taï study groups have been monitored for decades, providing unparalleled data on chimpanzee social bonds, health, and welfare indicators.
Outside protected areas, chimpanzees and other forest animals face severe pressure from cocoa farming expansion. Ivory Coast's cocoa sector is responding to EU deforestation regulations that require supply chain deforestation-free certification — creating economic incentives that may help protect remaining forest habitat and the wildlife it supports.
The expansion of cocoa farming in Ivory Coast has been one of the most significant drivers of tropical deforestation in West Africa, with profound consequences for wildlife welfare. Forest clearing kills individual animals directly and destroys the habitat of millions more. Wildlife trapped in forest fragments faces isolation, reduced genetic diversity, and intensified human-wildlife conflict at forest edges.
The EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), which requires companies selling cocoa and other commodities in the EU to demonstrate supply chain deforestation-free status, creates significant pressure on Ivory Coast's cocoa sector to change practices. If effectively implemented, this regulation could significantly benefit wildlife welfare by reducing the incentive to clear forest for new cocoa farms.
Ivory Coast's livestock sector includes cattle (primarily zebu in the north), pigs, and poultry. Commercial poultry production has grown significantly to serve Abidjan and other urban centers. Traditional cattle herding by Fulani communities faces land access challenges as agricultural areas expand. Livestock markets involve significant transport with variable welfare conditions.
Bushmeat remains an important protein source, with trade supplying both rural communities and urban markets. The welfare costs of bushmeat hunting — snaring, live capture, transport — affect many species. Growing urban middle-class interest in food provenance and food safety provides a potential lever for reducing bushmeat demand through alternatives.
Ivory Coast's wildlife code provides protections for listed species. There is no comprehensive dedicated animal welfare law. The Ministère des Ressources Animales et Halieutiques oversees livestock. Civil society organizations including SOS Forêts work on conservation. International conservation organizations including WWF, WCS, and IUCN have programs in Ivory Coast. The country's economic growth trajectory and EU trade relationship create conditions for gradual welfare standard improvement, particularly linked to deforestation governance reforms.