To mark International Day of Forests, Sierra Leone’s Minister for Environment and Climate Change, Jiwoh Abdulai, visited the Gola Rainforest which the RSPB and our local partners have been working to protect for more than 30 years. He hailed it is a “success story we’d like to replicate across Sierra Leone”.
The Gola Rainforest: the largest remaining area of intact, lowland rainforest anywhere in Sierra Leone, home to Pygmy Hippos, Forest Elephants, Western Chimpanzees, and more than 300 bird and 600 butterfly species.
In 2013, the RSPB helped to launch an ambitious partnership project, as part of the international ‘Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries’ (REDD+) framework, to help protect Gola and support its communities. Building on this project launch, in 2015 the not-for-profit company Gola Rainforest Conservation was founded. The company is a partnership between the Government of Sierra Leone, the Conservation Society of Sierra Leone (CSSL), the RSPB, and the people of the seven Gola Chiefdoms.
If Gola is to be protected, then local communities must be supported to earn good livelihoods without negatively impacting the forest and its wildlife. Together with partners, Gola Rainforest Conservation employs over 150 local people and continues to offer training and support to communities across the Gola region.
For example, rangers are employed to carry out patrols to identify and prevent illegal activity. Together they monitor the forest for snares, traps and mining. Not only does this initiative help to safeguard wildlife from poaching, but it also offers alternative employment opportunities to the local community.
The Gola Rainforest Conservation partnership is also supporting farmers to create better yields and higher-quality produce. This includes offering training and support to local people to farm shade-grown cocoa alongside their other crops. This cocoa is then processed and turned into delicious forest-friendly chocolate which is available to buy online at the RSPB Shop.
The last ten years have seen fantastic success for the REDD+ project thanks to the hard work of the local communities, the partners in Sierra Leone and those supporting overseas.
During a five-day trip to the Gola landscape in March, Minister Abdulai met with RSPB staff as well as our partners including Gola Rainforest Conservation (GRC) and the Conservation Society of Sierra Leone (CSSL). He also held talks with local stakeholders, including forest-edge communities, and hiked in the national park (seeing some obliging monkeys on the way!) to a viewpoint looking out over the forest.
The trip culminated with a celebratory day in Joru, Gaura Chiefdom, where the Minister gave an address to mark International Day of Forests (21 March) in which he praised the protection of Gola as a model to be followed elsewhere in Sierra Leone and around the world. He also described the park as a national asset and spoke of his pride in being able to go anywhere in the world and celebrate the conservation of Gola as a success story. The visit concluded with the Minister and others planting trees at a local school in Joru.
Reflecting on the Minister’s visit the RSPB’s Alade Adeleke, Country Programme Manager for Sierria Leone, said:
“The visit of the Minister and the celebration of the International Day of Forests reinforces the hope that Gola can be replicated in other parts of Sierra Leone. It rekindles the commitment of other communities that unsustainable practices can be reduced to enable forest restoration.”
To find out more about the RSPB’s work helping to protect the Gola Rainforest of Sierra Leone visit our Conservation Action blog.
The Gola REDD+ project is being undertaken in partnership between the RSPB and Gola Rainforest Conservation. Gola Rainforest Conservation (GRC) is formed by the partnership of the Government of Sierra Leone, the Conservation Society of Sierra Leone (CSSL), the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), and the people of the seven Gola Chiefdoms.
