As the first primatologist from Côte d’Ivoire, Inza Koné has dedicated a lifetime to the study and protection of primates, a mission that began when he was just eight years old, and he befriended a young baboon in captivity named Kouassi.

The two formed a close bond, but as the years passed, Kouassi grew larger and more aggressive, until the family had no choice but to put him down. Koné was heartbroken, and consumed by questions of what they could have done differently: “I swore I’d become an advocate for primates.”

Koné’s mission has now seen him named as one of the 2023 Rolex Awards for Enterprise Laureates for his ambitious conservation work in one of Côte d’Ivoire’s most biodiverse forests.

Human activity in Côte d’Ivoire has left just two per cent of its primary forest intact, but in the far south-eastern corner lies an 11,000 hectare stretch of pristine rainforest, Tanoé-Ehy. Protected by its inhospitable swampy conditions, it is home to species found nowhere else on earth, including at least 33 endemic plant species, 19 threatened bird species and 10 endemic amphibian species.

What most drew Koné to the Tanoé-Ehy Forest were the nine species of primate found there, including four of the most endangered in West Africa. The most notable of these is Miss Waldron’s red colobus, which has not been scientifically documented since the 1970s. “Searching for a species that is considered lost or extinct is a huge challenge, but it’s also very exciting,” says Koné, “if we rediscover this monkey, we’re going to make history.”

The first step in protecting these primates is protecting the forest itself. In 2006, Koné brought together 11 villages around Tanoé-Ehy in a ground-breaking collaboration that saw community-based conservation programmes deterring threats to the forest such as poaching, logging and agricultural land-clearing. By December 2021, the Tanoé-Ehy Forest was named a community-managed natural reserve, collectively owned by the local villages. Koné’s Rolex Award for Enterprise recognizes his vital work in this unique ecosystem and, by making him part of the Perpetual Planet Initiative, will support the project for years to come.

But as Koné says, “It’s essential to combine the well-being of local communities with nature conservation.”

To this end, Koné and his team have constructed a small cassava processing plant, which has allowed local farmers to increase their income fivefold. “We’re not telling people to give up farming, simply that you can farm without clearing new forest.” The programme also encourages farmers to replant cleared areas, and over the last five years they have planted 10,000 seedlings, natural fences to separate farmland and forest, and botanical gardens for educational purposes.

The fauna has also been benefitting, with increasing numbers of primates being spotted in the forest. According to Koné, “The communities understand that to continue fishing and farming they need rainfall, which is regulated by the forest, and the forest’s existence depends on the monkeys, birds and other animals for seed dispersal and nutrient cycling. The locals know that it’s not enough to just preserve the trees, they must protect the animals too.”

Some of that protection has come from an unusual source: the very poachers who used to hunt the animals. As the people with the best knowledge of how to penetrate the heart of the forest, the poachers now play a crucial role in protecting Tanoé-Ehy’s wildlife.

With their help, Koné has been delving into the forest to monitor its health and search for the possibly extinct Miss Waldron’s red colobus. Though the last official sighting was in 1978, many of the locals that Koné works with have reported seeing them in the forest. The team use their impressive array of monitoring techniques to search for the monkey, including drone surveys, eDNA sampling and over 70 camera traps installed throughout the canopy. The masses of data they have collected have indicated an encouraging rise in primate populations in the forest, but offered no sign of Miss Waldron’s red colobus. Nonetheless, recognizing the potential of such a discovery in strengthening the case for Tanoé-Ehy’s protection, Koné remains determined to find the lost monkey.

Winning the Rolex Awards for Enterprise will help Koné scale up the programme’s operations in Tanoé-Ehy, allowing the team to lay out easier access routes throughout the forest and organize a greater presence to stop poaching and logging. They also plan to scale up the support for local farmers, and further raise local awareness of marsh and forest conservation. Ultimately, Koné hopes the model will be replicated throughout West Africa, starting with expanding the reserve across the Tanoé river into neighbouring Ghana, to protect the Tanoé-Ehy Forest on both sides of the border.

In short, Koné’s work is far from done; “I’ve become attached to Tanoé-Ehy, it’s going to be hard to leave. I think this is the best tribute I can pay to my childhood friend Kouassi.”

ABOUT THE PERPETUAL PLANET INITIATIVE
For nearly a century, Rolex has supported pioneering explorers pushing back the boundaries of human endeavour. The company has moved from championing exploration for the sake of discovery to protecting the planet, committing for the long term to support individuals and organizations using science to understand and devise solutions to today’s environmental challenges.

This engagement was reinforced with the launch of the Perpetual Planet Initiative in 2019, which includes the Rolex Awards for Enterprise, as well as long-standing partnerships such as Mission Blue and the National Geographic Society, or younger organizations such as Coral Gardeners, among a pool of over 30 partners.

As one of the pillars of the Perpetual Planet Initiative, the Rolex Awards continue to expand their portfolio, which includes projects from Grégoire Courtine’s groundbreaking technologies to treat spinal cord injury, to Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim’s work with indigenous people to map natural resources and prevent climate conflicts in the Sahel.

Rolex also supports organizations and initiatives fostering the next generations of explorers, scientists and conservationists through scholarships and grants, such as Our World-Underwater Scholarship Society and The Rolex Explorers Club Grants.