Hilaire Gomé

Hilaire Gome is combining traditional environmental practices, reconstituted as uniquely effective modern policies, and a massive campaign of environmental awareness aimed at young people to spearhead Cote d'Ivoire's environmental movement.

Hilaire seeks to capitalize on the power of traditional beliefs and practices about the environment to create a potent environmental protection policy for Cote d'Ivoire. Hilaire believes passionately (and his view is confirmed by many experts) that pre-colonial Ivoirien culture valued and protected the environment in unique and effective ways. A major manifestation of this is the "sacred forests," which were designated near most villages, and which are still widespread today. It is forbidden to cut down these forests where rituals like circumcision are performed, and where medicinal herbs used in traditional medicine are found.
Hilaire says that all Ivoiriens, "Ph.D. or not, respect the idea of "sacred," and he plans to use the power of this belief to formulate tenable environmental regulations that will be acceptable to the government and enforced by the villagers themselves. Through this strategy, Hilaire seeks not only to value and preserve Cote d'Ivoire's forest, but also its traditional culture, and adds that "if we destroy our forests, we will destroy our culture. We have to combine our book learning with our oral tradition, the wisdom of our ancestors."
Through Cote d'Ivoire's premiere environmental movement, the Croix Verte, which he founded ten years ago, Hilaire seeks to implement a massive campaign of public education and environmental awareness in addition to his forest protection plan. The central mission of the Croix Verte is to sensitize people to such an extent that not polluting becomes a reflex action. Hilaire wants people to fully understand both the environmental and demographic implications of environmental issues. Through the Croix Verte, Hilaire plans to establish a "network of African youth for the environment."

Cote d'Ivoire is becoming deforested at an alarmingly rapid rate. While it boasted 20 million hectares of forest only twenty years ago, today only 3 million hectares remain, and the forests continue to be cut at a rate of approximately 300,000 hectares each year.

The government of Cote d'Ivoire has attempted to address this problem with system of protected "classified forests." However, this system, imposed from above and offering no alternatives or flexibility, is failing badly. It has been poorly implemented without adequate regard for the basic needs of villagers, who are often forced to clear portions of classified forests in order to grow crops to feed their families. Another major problem is that Ivoirien elites continue to grant the right to clear large tracts of land to private interests, and in so doing reap substantial personal gain. SODEFOR, the state owned reforestation company, does plant trees, however these trees are for export, consisting primarily of teak and mahogany.

Almost half of Cote d'Ivoire's residents are immigrants. While much of this immigration is due to the country's high standard of living relative to that of its neighbors, many of the immigrants are environmental refugees fleeing drought in the Sahel and increasing the strain on Cote d'Ivoire's environment.

Additionally, there is an extremely low level of environmental awareness in Cote d'Ivoire, and thus poor environmental practices among the general population. Including little potential to pressure government, business and "development" concerns to become more sensitive to environmental issues.

Hilaire's strategy is multi-faceted and flexible. At its core is his long standing fascination with the indigenous concept of "sacred forest."

His plan for the "sacred forest" has three steps. He will begin by determining how many sacred forests are still in existence and there location. The next step will be to visit each sacred forest and perform a detailed study to determine its administrative status, size, biological content, and social uses (ritual, spiritual and medical). A database will be put in use to track this information. The third step is for the Croix Verte to "adopt" each "sacred forest," a process which will culminate in the signing of a formal agreement between the villagers and Croix Verte.

Local "Surveillance Committees" comprised of villagers living near the forests will be set up to monitor each forest and protect it, not only against inappropriate human intrusion, but also bush fires and other hazards. These "Surveillance Committees" will be encouraged to enlarge the sacred forest by planting new trees around its perimeter.

Having adopted the forests, Croix Verte will then push for new government regulations to protect them, providing the government with draft texts of such legislation. Currently, land in Cote d'Ivoire "belongs" to anyone who puts it into cultivation. Hilaire describes this policy as "a bomb waiting to explode," and it will be among the first legislative changes to be pursued by Croix Verte.

The Croix Verte has already been quite active in publicizing environmental issues in Cote d'Ivoire thorough radio and television interviews, and has also created an officially recognized National Environmental Awareness Week. The Croix Verte plans to remain active in this field, and has just published the first issue of their newsletter: "Bulletin de Sensibilisation et d'Education."

Hilaire has been able to attract a varied array of people who serve on a volunteer basis as members of Croix Verte's Executive Committee. In addition, Hilaire firmly believes that it is young Africans, more than any other group, who see and are touched by environmental problems, and that they will play the key role in sensitizing both their parents and their governments in the future. He says that people often talk about the environment as the future for their children, but he says, "If you want to give us the future, you should start by giving us the present."

The Croix Verte has already achieved a major success by convincing the Ivoirien government not to cut down the Banco forest outside of Abidjan where it had planned to construct a new factory. Hilaire dreams that the Croix Verte will continue to be effective in raising public awareness, pressuring the Ivoirien government and other "development" organizations, and gathering resources both financial and intellectual. Hilaire believes that "the moment is ripe because we have democracy now. We can criticize the government openly... we keep the Minister of the Environment on guard. We tell him what we care about."

Hilaire grew up on a rice plantation in central west Cote d'Ivoire and as a youth became interested in the forests that he saw increasingly being destroyed by "development" projects. He started doing research and read documents from the 1972 Stockholm Conference on the Environment. He realized that governments were responsible for "development" but they did not seem very concerned about preservation of the environment in the process.

As a student, Hilaire worried increasingly about the forest problem and, realizing that "there were clubs for dancing and football, I decided to form a club to protect the environment." He was twenty-three when he founded the Croix Verte in 1982.

In 1989 he served as UNEP's "Youth Ambassador" from 1991-1992 with responsibility for raising awareness about the environment among young people in francophone West Africa. Hilaire has travelled widely pursuing his mission. In 1992 he attended both the Rio Conference and the World Youth Forum in Costa Rica, where he was one of only two black African participants. Hilaire will soon publish a book for young readers on the environment.

Many who know Hilaire marvel at his single-minded obsession with the environment, his dedication, and his drive. In a typical comment, a colleague remarked, "sometimes I ask myself if he ever sleeps."