Ivory Coast has formed its first "green army", a brigade of 650 soldiers trained to fight deforestation and criminal environmental activity in a nation that lost almost all its forests in half a century.

The Special Surveillance and Intervention Brigade (BSSI) is "an unprecedented force in the history of water and forests in Ivory Coast, by virtue of its character as a special force," Minister of Water and Forests Alain Richard Donwahi declared at a ceremony Thursday.

The BSSI "is the spearhead of the battle against all kinds of criminal activity regarding the forest, wildlife and water resources. It stands out for specific interventions... namely a company for the forest, a company for water, and a company for fauna," he added.

Officers and non-commissioned officers in the BSSI are commandoes with the watchword: "The forest is sacred, I must protect it and commit to defending it, even at the risk of my life."

On July 25, authorities in the West African country announced the early success of an ambitious plan to plant more than five million trees in 2020 to combat deforestation. This was a major push after communities around the country planted more than one million trees in 2019.

The world's leading cocoa producer has 40 percent of the market share, but forested land has diminished from 16 million hectares (61,800 square miles) in the 1960s to three million hectares today, according to official figures.

The expansion of cocoa plantations has played a significant part in this loss of trees.

Climate change, natural disasters, the impoverishment of the soil and population migration have also contributed to the disappearance of forest cover.

Ivory Coast's new forestry policy aims to replant six million hectares by 2030, or 20 percent of the national territory, including an increase of three million hectares of forest, officials say.

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