Villagers step up to halt deforestation in Sierra Leone

DEEP inside a Sierra Leone national park, a mother of seven was about to set dozens of tree trunks ablaze to make charcoal.

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Producing the cheap fuel in this way is illegal in the protected rainforest near the capital of a country highly vulnerable to the ravages of climate change.

But Aminata Sankoh, a widow who said she had no other choice for making a living, defiantly shrugged off a stern warning from a group of villagers who monitor the forests as part of a ground-breaking grassroots initiative.

“You are saying you are not affected by this deforestation, that there will be tree planting - but it will affect your own great grandchildren!” chided group leader Caesar Senesie.

The extent of the deforestation in the humid tropical forest and what remains of the primary forest is clear as far as the eye can see.

Some has been taken over for marijuana plantations - Sierra Leone is battling drug problems - and land grabbing is also rife to satisfy demographic pressures.

Nearly a third, or 5 600 hectares of the forest within the Western Area Peninsula National Park has been lost or severely degraded since 2012.

Last year alone “intensive deforestation” led to the loss of 715 hectares, or the equivalent of 1 330 football pitches, according to the World Food Programme.

Unesco says the area is home to between 80 and 90% of Sierra Leone's biodiversity.