Sierra Leone forest champion sees dream realised for Tiwai

ACTIVIST Tommy Garnett's decades of work paid off when Sierra Leone's Tiwai island - a lush forest home to one of the world's highest concentrations of primates - landed a spot on the UN cultural agency's World Heritage list.

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The 66-year-old and the conservation group he founded are the reason Tiwai, which was nearly destroyed during Sierra Leone’s 1991-2002 civil war, still exists.

“I feel very happy, relieved, hopeful,” the environmentalist told AFP from the verdant island, ahead of the announcement.

The Gola-Tiwai complex, which also includes the nearby Gola Rainforest National Park, will be Sierra Leone's first UNESCO site.

UNESCO director general Audrey Azoulay called Gola-Tiwai “a jewel of biodiversity, a sanctuary for rare species and a model of community management.”

The wildlife and fauna in the two areas have been imperilled for years by threats such as deforestation.

Tiwai Island, located in the Moa River, measures just 12km² and has 11 species of primates - including the endangered western chimpanzee, the king colobus monkey and the Diana monkey. In 1992, Garnett, who has dedicated his life to environmental projects in West Africa, created the Environmental Foundation for Africa (EFA). In the early 2000s, he started working to save Tiwai. Today, the wildlife sanctuary is a gleaming success story for Sierra Leone.