Background

Since January 2024 HEAT has supported Côte d’Ivoire in building the enabling conditions and human capacities to deploy drones for environmental applications. The work was carried out through two assignments under GIZ’s project „Triangular Cooperation for Digital Innovation Made in Africa“, implemented in partnership with Rwandan, Ivorian, and German institutions.

The project analysed the drone ecosystem in Côte d’Ivoire across three pillars – regulation, training, and use cases – engaged local stakeholders and experts, and developed implementation plans aligned with national priorities.

HEAT Services

HEAT delivered two sequential assignments covering analysis, stakeholder engagement, and implementation planning:

• A comprehensive review paper analysed the drone ecosystem in Côte d’Ivoire, covering the stakeholder landscape, legislation, capacity needs, and barriers to deployment. The study confirmed the high potential of drones for environmental monitoring, agriculture, and forestry, while identifying key constraints including regulatory complexity and limited technical training capacity. The review paper reflects the current scientific literature, ongoing and applied projects and results of the survey with key stakeholders.
• Eight potential civilian use cases were identified. Three were prioritised in consultation with the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development (MINEDDTE) and the Ivorian Parks and Reserves Authority (OIPR): agroforestry biomass monitoring, forest volume and biomass assessment, and wildlife monitoring.
• Two use cases were developed into detailed implementation plans and terms of reference to enable tendering by GIZ:
  • Biomass measurement in agroforestry systems around the Bossematié Nature Reserve: Measurement of biomass in agroforestry plantations is a promising use case in the light of the importance agroforestry has within the country’s sustainable development and climate goals. Ivorian stakeholders have been familiarized with the use case, and have expressed their preference and technical viability for its implementation.
  • Wildlife monitoring in Comoé National Park: The use case on wildlife monitoring is of high political interest to key project partners. Terms of reference for national, regional and international consultancy services to implement this complex use case have been drafted. Synergies with the support of CURAT through GIZ have been created to embed the knowledge gained in both use case into the research and training agenda of CURAT, thus ensuring permanence.
• Internal training and capacity building: GIZ staff of the Triangular Cooperation project have been trained by HEAT’s national experts. The participation of one GIZ expert at an international conference further advanced the team’s knowledge regarding the current state of the art in remote sensing.
• Participative workshops were held to present the review findings and discuss the use cases with relevant experts and institutions.

The agroforestry use case was showcased as a scientific poster at the ESA Living Planet Symposium in Vienna (June 2025), supporting international visibility and the professional development of GIZ’s national GIS expert.

The project maximised synergies with existing GIZ and HEAT work in Côte d’Ivoire and produced cross-cutting results including stronger inter-project cooperation and increased women’s participation in drone activities. HEAT and GIZ continue to support Ivorian drone capacity at CURAT (Centre Universitaire de Recherche et d’Application en Télédétection).