Guinée forestière

Forrested region of Guinea

Guinée forestière (Forested Guinea) is a forested mountainous region in southeastern Guinea, extending into northeastern Sierra Leone. It is one of four natural regions into which Guinea is divided and covers 23% of the country. It includes all of the Nzérékoré administrative region, and shares a border with Sierra Leone and Liberia. Its rocky topology contains several mountain ranges and has an average elevation of 460m. Forested Guinea contains important areas of biological diversity such as the UNESCO World Heritage site Mount Nimba Strict Nature Reserve and biosphere reserve Ziama Massif. The Guéckédou prefectures also recorded the initial case of the 2014 Ebola outbreak in Meliandou, a rural village. Indigenous linguistic groups began to arrive later from neighbouring areas; their tribes were established from the 15th century onwards.

In the 1850s, Samori Ture founded the Wassoulou empire, including Forested Guinea. Ture was a military leader who seized control of the Guinea Highlands, and ultimately expanded his empire to reach Ghana, Côte d'Ivoire and Mali. The expansion of his empire led to the forced religious conversion of indigenous peoples in Forested Guinea through the establishment of mosques and destruction of local religious symbols. The French colonists altered the societal foundations through the introduction of the western educational system and French culture. This included establishing village schools which offered to teach basic maths and literacy in the French language. These inflows led to the establishment of refugee camps along the border between Liberia and Forested Guinea in the 1990s. Most of the refugees were directed towards the Forest Region due to the Guinean Government and UNHCR restricting assistance to only the Forest Region. The decisions were designed to contain the refugee system to Forested Guinea due to its remoteness and may have been politically motivated.

Forested Guinea has a total population of 2.1 million (2011). The demographics of Forested Guinea are split between people living in urban and rural areas with one fifth of the population living in urban areas. The two most populated urban areas are Guéckédou with 290,000 and Nzérékoré, with 195,000 inhabitants as of the 2014 census. Forested Guinea has the highest population density of the four regions of Guinea, with 55 people per kilometre squared in 2009. However, it is much lower than the capital city of Guinea, Conakry, with over 3440 people per kilometre squared. Approximately 67% of Forested Guinea lives below the poverty line, among the highest rates of the Guinean regions. This correlates with a tendency to live in rural areas, which contain 65% of cases, possess low levels of education and have livelihoods in agriculture. Guinée forestière is known for its diverse ethnic population, including the Toma and Kissi groups, and also shelters a large number of refugees from the Sierra Leone Civil War, the Liberian Civil Wars and the Ivorian Civil Wars. Nzérékoré is the largest city. Both former President Moussa Dadis Camara and former Prime Minister Jean Marie Doré are from the Guinée forestière. The linguistic areas of Forested Guinea contain the main groups of the Kpelle, Loma and Kisi.

The Kpelle migrated from West Sudan in the 16th century. Their social structure is arranged under paramount chiefs, who settle disputes and mediate between the Guinean government and their people. The Kpelle region overlaps with the bordering country of Liberia and has 100,000 native speakers in Forested Guinea itself. This is a result of the Kpelle seeking refuge in Forested Guinea from First Liberian Civil War. The Loma tribe began in the 15th century, as a result of the breakdown of the Mande empire. They migrated to Liberia and Guinea, due to conflict with the French and other neighbouring tribes. The Loma people, much like the Kpelle, share a common region of Forested Guinea and Liberia, with their total population exceeding 400,000. However, the Guinean and Liberian Loma people are distinct in culture, dialect and history. The Kissi people migrated from the highland region, Fouta Djallon, in the 17th century. The Kissi people also inhabit an area that encompasses Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone; however they are mainly concentrated in the Guéckédou region. Their villages usually do not contain more than 150 people and are organised under a senior member of each village. They are mainly farmers that produce rice, coffee and kola; rice cultivation began in the 18th century and constitutes an important part of their culture. It meets criteria IX and X of the UNESCO Criteria for Selection, reflecting the importance of its processes of evolution and development of flora and fauna, and conserving its biological diversity. These qualities are evidenced in species such as the Nimba otter shrew, the viviparous toad, and observed tool use by chimpanzees. Since the 1960s, the Nimba Range has become a source for iron and diamond ore mining, which has led to the degradation of the nature reserve.

The Ziama Massif is a 116 200 hectares large Biosphere Reserve, which is considered to be a relict of the once continuous West African rainforest belt. It is a tropical, forested mountainous area located about 100 km from Nzérékoré in the Guinean Highlands. It was designated Bioreserve status by UNESCO in 1980 and is home to 22 species of threatened fauna included in the CITES Appendices. It is home to 1 300 vascular plant species, 124 mammal species, and 286 bird species. The Ziama Massif provides shelter to the threatened West African rainforest megafauna, such as the forest elephant, the forest buffalo, the pygmy hippopotamus, the bongo antelope, and the critically endangered western chimpanzee. Its local population is around 29,000, and some areas of this reserve are allocated for local economic activities, as the activities provides income to the residents. This includes forestry and quinine processing stations. However, the innermost 60,000 hectares are protected from human activity such as logging and hunting.

The Diécké Classified Forest is a 64 000 hectares large forest reserve, which is characterized by lowland and swamp forests. In fact, it is one of the least discovered protected areas of West Africa; however, some studies suggest, that Diécké is the stronghold of the pygmy hippopotamus and the critically endangered western chimpanzee. The Diécké Classified Forest forms part of the Western Guinean Lowland forests, south of Nzérékoré, sharing this region with neighbouring countries Sierra Leone and Liberia. It is considered a major site for biodiversity in Africa and the WWF notes "outstanding biological importance" as well as endemic fauna such as the Dwarf crocodile, the Bay duiker and species of endangered primates such as the Diana monkey, and Western Red colobus. This area is split into evergreen and deciduous forests and contains plant species unique to the area. Its forest composition is mainly lowland mature rainforest, with swamps in some regions. It has heavy rainfall with this region receiving 1900 3000mm of rainfall each year, making it one of the wettest parts of West Africa. This subsequently spread to neighbouring countries Liberia and Sierra Leone due to the village's proximity to their borders and the free flow of people between the three countries. Ebola also spread to Conakry from Guéckédou, the first urban area in Guinea to be affected, with the first case recorded on 17 March 2014. The Ebola Crisis affected 3811 people in total in Guinea. Guinea was declared "Ebola free" in its entirety in December 2015; however, on 17 March 2016, Nzérékoré recorded two additional cases of Ebola.

The Forest Region was one of the regions most severely affected by the Ebola crisis, and the weakened healthcare system had incidental effects such as reducing treatment attendance, increased used sub standard drugs and distrust towards the healthcare system. The Ebola crisis was said to have "brought a number of additional burdens" The cultural practices surrounding mortuary rites such as preparing the body of the deceased, and exhumations conflicted with the Ebola treatment centres' control of the body. This caused tension between foreign humanitarian aid and patients' families, which manifested in violent attacks towards Médecins Sans Frontières, as well as physical barricades put in place by the local population near villages to prevent access. Other cultural aspects such as belief in sorcery contributed further to the resistance. Behaviour such as seclusion and anti social conduct sparked suspicion. Both foreign and community members could be viewed as sorcerers, and due to the negative connotations were ostracised. This negative perception towards those sorcery consequently sparked anger at Ebola treatment centres, which advocated anti social behaviour to prevent the spread of Ebola.