The Conservation Society of Sierra Leone (CSSL) is working with local communities to advance sustainable agriculture and agroforestry practices
By Abdul Kaprr Dumbuya
Located In eastern Sierra Leone, covering 70,000 hectares lies Gola Rainforest National Park (GRNP), one of the last remaining intact tracts of the tropical Upper Guinean forests in West Africa. An important biodiversity hotspot, the forest is home to several species including the White-necked Picathartes, Pygmy Hippo, the Jentink’s Duiker and the Western Chimpanzee among many others.
On the fringes of the park, community forests serve as a buffer zone within a 12 km radius. This zone is home to 122 communities, with a population of about 140,000 people. For decades, local communities have relied on these forests for their livelihoods. However poaching, logging, and unsustainable farming activities like upland farming practices are threatening these forests.
Upland farming employs slash-and-burn practices which get rid of trees and shrubs to allow cultivation of crops. These practices have widely been regarded by conservationists as inimical to forestry development and sustainability, in addition to threatening the survival of High Conservation Value (HCV) species. Communities in Nomo chiefdom, Kenema district and numerous others across the country have long been applying such practices leading to poor agricultural yields, and huge consequences on biodiversity and climate change.
”Upland farming is not ideal for conservation as well as largescale cultivation of crops. Most times, farmers are not knowledgeable about species tend; areas that have high conservation value. They therefore clear massive forest areas to cultivate their crops. This creates limited carrying capacity for species (including elephants, chimps, etc.) that prefer wide range for their survival. Also, slash-and-burn destroys microbial organisms which improve soil fertility. This negates high productivity of crops”, Bobson Kobba, Project Officer at the Conservation Society of Sierra Leone CSSL asserts.
To support communities with improved knowledge and skills in sustainable agriculture and agroforestry, the CSSL, in collaboration with Gola Rainforest Conservation (GRC) and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) have been implementing the West Africa Biodiversity and Low Emissions Development (WABiLED) project in Nomo chiefdom, Kenema district since June 2023.
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) funded project targeting Lowuma, Faama, Gbadalahun, Maina/Madina and Wayeihun communities with about 1,500 beneficiaries in the fringes of GRNP, has three objectives including reducing forest degradation and biodiversity loss in key transboundary forest landscapes; reducing greenhouse gas emissions and increasing carbon sequestration from land use; and combatting wildlife trafficking while enhancing conservation of great ape species.
Massa Kamoh is a 25-year-old peasant farmer and a mother of two in Lowuma community, Nomo Chiefdom. Massa has been practicing upland rice farming for many years until CSSL introduced the concept of agroforestry through the WABiLED project to their community in 2023. According to Massa, she was aware that practicing upland farming involved too much labour with little yield, combined with environmental destruction through the slash and burn method used to prepare land for cultivation.
“We did not have options at the time, so we kept doing the same thing year in year out”, says Massa.
CSSL project staff held series of meetings during which communities were enlightened about the consequences of destroying the forest for agriculture and other purposes. They highlighted the need for collaboration of various stakeholders, including local communities. In forest conservation. Further, CSSL is working with the communities to encourage the implementation of Inland Valley Swamp (IVS) farming, involving cultivation of crops in naturally occurring, low-lying areas instead of upland farming.
“For me, those engagements opened my mind to understand the real threats we have been posing to our environment. In fact, we soon we realized that our only water source in the forest was drying up, and we started trekking in search of potable water in long distances”, Massa adds.
Patrick Sahr Dauda, Land-use Planning and Co-management Lead at CSSL, notes that the local authorities were particularly very supportive in ensuring that people become compliant, by reinforcing the implementation of existing community byelaws established for the protection of their community forests. Further, he underscores the relevance of local communities in sustainably managing community forests, as they are the custodians of the forest, and play a key role in conservation activities through this initiative.
“We were happy that Massa and many of her fellow community members in Lowuma and other communities were very cooperative and ready to implement the knowledge they learned from our sensitization engagements”, says Dauda.
“Since I started inland valley swamp (IVS) farming, where I cultivate rice, pineapples, vegetables, cassava, bananas and groundnuts, among many others, I have realized tremendous improvement in my health as well as my earnings. In my first harvest of a small portion of my one-acre pineapple farm, I had three bags of pineapples which I sold and received Sierra Leonean leone NLe 1,300.00 ($57 USD). I also gave away lots of the produce to my community folks for consumption. I feel very proud that I don’t have to toil too much to support my family. This is now helping me greatly in supporting the education and other welfare needs of my children and other family members”, notes Massa.
Following February 2025 US government’s directive to shut down USAID the project’s funder, CSSL field staff continue to liaise with the local communities in Kenema through periodic visits to ensure that gains made are sustained. Further, CSSL is working with partners to roll out new project interventions in the landscape, including agroforestry and other components to improve forest conservation practices.
“I would like to advise my people for us all to stop destroying the forest. If we destroy the forest, we are destroying ourselves and the future of our children. For me, rather than I continue destroying the forest through upland farming, I decided to now be practicing IVS farming; thanks to the advice of CSSL through their WABiLED project”, concludes Massa.
Source; https://www.birdlife.org/news/2025/03/19/promoting-sustainable-agroforestry-in-sierra-leone/