331 Coastal Voices: Building Committees to Protect Marine Life in Ivory Coast

This blog is the second in a series of four blog articles that will highlight marine conservation work in Ivory Coast. Follow along for the rest of the series!

A conservation program is only as strong as the people who carry it forward long after the field team leaves. So, after mapping the Sassandra-Fresco coastline’s nesting beaches and pollution hotspots (see Part One), Born Free USA continued to collaborate with Ivory Coast’s Wildlife Authorities (DFRC) to gather key stakeholders like local authorities, community leaders, and the fishing communities who live alongside these threatened species every day.

The goal of these meetings was ambitious as the team focused on shifting local mindsets away from seeing sea turtles, dolphins, and manatees as something to hunt, eat, or sell, and toward seeing them as something worth protecting and toward the possibilities of building alternative livelihoods through ecotourism.

Two Meetings, Nine Villages, One Clear Signal

In June and July 2026, the team held two coordination meetings and organized informational sessions. In total, 331 residents and fishermen across nine villages learned about the legal protections these species are covered by and the threats they face.
In Sassandra, the meeting attracted regional directors of environment and fisheries and sanitation representatives who developed a concrete proposal issued by the Prefect to formally establish a monitoring commission and request the support of the Maritime and Port Affairs agency.

In Fresco, the Prefect went further, proposing local species protection committees and the desilting of the lagoon near Fresco Plage, the same lagoon flagged in Part One as a possible manatee habitat, to provide any manatees there a better environment. The Prefect also ordered the establishment of a dedicated monitoring program for the manatee population and an outreach campaign for preserving the surrounding mangroves.

Meeting Communities

In each community, a local translator helped bring a message, delivered on behalf of Ivory Coast’s Minister of Water and Forests, directly to residents and fishers. Posters illustrated each protected species. The team explained what Ivorian law says: capturing, killing, consuming, or trading sea turtles, dolphins, or manatees is a punishable offense, and any specimen caught accidentally in a net must be released alive.

In Fresco, where a sizable community of fishermen of Ghanaian origin works the coast, messages were again translated into local languages to make sure nobody was left out of the conversation. The team also took the opportunity to discuss how these communities could benefit financially from conservation practices that could create significant ecotourism potential by protecting these species rather than exploiting them.

Two concrete commitments came out of these sessions: the future creation of volunteer eco-guard committees, and upcoming beach clean-up operations, both of which would become reality within just weeks (see Parts Three and Four, coming soon).

How You Can help

Community-based programs like this one are the foundation, and the future, of coastal and marine species protection. Born Free USA has proudly supported and worked alongside Côte d’Ivoire for many years and has witnessed the continuous efforts of local authorities to protect local biodiversity.

You can help this coalition grow. Support our work so that more coastal communities in Sassandra and Fresco have the resources to protect the sea turtles, dolphins, and manatees they live alongside.

Everyone at Born Free USA warmly thanks all our supporters for their engagement in this program.

More from this Series

Part One: On the Trail of Turtles: Mapping Hidden Nesting Beaches in Ivory Coast

Part Three: Turning the Tide in Ivory Coast: Training 199 Fishers to Save Sea Turtles Caught in Their Nets – Coming soon!

Part Four: Sweeping the Shoreline: Communities Unite Against Plastic Pollution, One Bottle at a Time – Coming soon!

Keep Wildlife in the Wild,
Alice