Deforestation And Its Outcomes In Sierra Leone

When Sierra Leone was finally granted independence, people looked forward to a better future. Instead, the next 30 years were filled with instability, military coups and corruption. So during the reign of Joseph Momoh, some had enough of the system. Established years prior to the conflict, the Revolutionary United Front was determined to take down the government. They entered Sierra Leone from Liberia in March of 1991, marking the beginning of an 11 year civil war. When it ended in 2002, a trail of blood and death had been left across the country. But looking beyond the violence, the war had quite a curious effect on the environment. You see, Sierra Leone had always experienced deforestation, where trees are felled to provide land for human use. The civil war only helped to accelerate the process. To feed the fires of war, RUF rebels looked to the river beds and took advantage of alluvial diamond mines, cutting down trees to facilitate extraction, a gruelling process that requires manual collection of the gems. After all, RUF only cared about exchanging blood diamonds for weapons, not the vegetation they destroyed. Forests were also exploited as part of war strategies, with vegetation covers near important structures cleared by both sides to expose their opponents’ movements.

Besides, forests were as important to civilians fighting for survival. Most were forcefully displaced from violent conflicts in rural areas to the safety of Sierra Leone’s capital - Freetown. They were mainly poor farmers who relied on forested areas for a living. The clearing of trees for housing and farmland, along with wood chopping for profit increased strain on the forests near the most densely populated area of the country. Sadly, it is Sierra Leone’s present-day population who are taking the brunt of the damage. Without sufficient tree roots to anchor the soil, frequent floods and mudslides occur, causing more casualties and property damage as time goes on. But here’s where the interesting part comes in. Although destruction did happen in some areas, the war may have acted as a brake on deforestation elsewhere in the country.

Before the civil war, more than two thirds of the economically active population was engaged in subsistence farming, where people cut down forests to cultivate crops. After the war began, the labour force was reduced after young men from rural areas were recruited to both sides of the conflict, while the remaining civilians were busy fleeing from RUF brutality. The violent war disrupted local economic activities, thus unintentionally slowing down the loss of forested areas. It is also worth noting that the primary forests remained largely unharmed throughout the war. Their remote locations meant travelling there for resources became difficult due to armed violence. In a change of fate, fear of death might have saved the country’s carbon-storing greenery. More surprisingly, biodiversity was largely preserved during the war. Take Gola, the core conservation hub of the Upper Guinea region, as an example. No species went extinct, and some of the most threatened animals continue to sustain healthy populations, especially primates like the Diana monkeys. Till this day, people have differing thoughts on what those fateful years did to the environment, but most will agree that deforestation poses grave consequences. The civil war in Sierra Leone has ended, but deforestation and the fight to save the environment is far from over. While the international community could always provide aid, it’s also up to the current government to improve on protection and conservation efforts. In the meantime, there’s still a billion more hectares of forests that need to be saved.