UNESCO mourns Martine Kah Gauze Touao

An ardent defender of the cause of women and youth, Ms Touao left her mark on the MAB Programme. She was a founding member of the African Network of Biosphere Reserves (AfriMAB) in 1996 and had chaired the network from 2019 to 2023. We owe it to her remarkable organizational skills that the 6th AfriMAB General Assembly in 2019 in Abidjan was such a success.

Throughout her long association with the MAB Programme, Ms Touao showed unwavering drive and determination in her efforts to promote biosphere reserves in Côte d’Ivoire and across the African continent.  

We have come to appreciate her fine professional qualities, as well as her generosity, her humanism and her constant good humour. We, thus, wish to express our deepest gratitude and to salute the memory of an exceptional woman who will be missed by us all.

Our thoughts are with her family, to whom we extend our deepest sympathy and compassion.