The Minister of the Environment and Climate Change launches the project titled: “Enhancing Sustainable Land Management and Biodiversity Conservation for Koinadugu and Falaba Districts.”
The Sierra Leone Minister of the Environment and Climate Change, Jiwoh Emmanuel Abdulai has on the 7th July, 2026, launched the project titled: ‘Enhancing Sustainable Land Management and Biodiversity Conservation through Innovative Financing for Integrated Climate Resilience in Koinadugu and Falaba Districts’ in Sierra Leone, with funding support from UNDP/GEF. The launching took place at the two day project inception meeting with key stakeholders including MDAs, UNDP, Security Sector, Revered Paramount Chiefs, women and other Community Stakeholders at the Koinadugu District Council Hall.
The purpose of the meeting was to engage all partners and stakeholders on the project goals, components, expected results and theory of change, validate work plan and implementation arrangements, confirm safeguards, gender inclusion, knowledge management and communication and monitoring and evaluation plans amongst others.
Speaking at the project inception meeting, the Host Paramount Chief, PC Gbawuru Mansaray III of Wara Wara Yagala Chiefdom in Koinadugu District, called on the Minister to support local farmers with tree planting activities. He assured that the communities would serve as strong partners to embrace and implement the project sustainably.
The UNDP Programme Specialist, Amara Salami Kanu acknowledged that the project is funded by UNDP /GEF and implemented by the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change. He noted that the project is a community driven initiative which would focus on restoring degraded areas around Loma mountain Lake Sonfon and orher depleted forest reserves. He noted that the project would also consider innovative financing which would help community people, especially women, artisinal miners and other farmers to stop destroying the forests. “This project is aligned with the Ecosystem Restoration Integrated Program which is the vision of the United Nation Decade Action on Ecosystem Restoration and the Global Conservation programme which requires update into these platforms so that they will track on progress, weather restoration, policy reforms, advocacy, and stakeholder engagement which have to be reported to these platforms which the project is aligned to”, he maintained. He said UNDP is concerned about environmental social safeguards in order for stakeholders to be aware and contribute to identify and refine the risks at disclosure level, and also to be aware about the mitigation actions towards the identified risks on environmental compliance.
The Programme Specialist emphasized for community actions to make the project sustainable to protect all protected areas within the two Districts.
The project Coordinator, Mrs. Boi- Baindu Robin said the project requires collaborative efforts among stakeholders as they have been affected by climate change. She said the inception meeting is to officially launch the project for the beneficiary communities. She disclosed that there are many opportunities which the communities would benefit from. She said the project will be implemented with community led approach.
The Head of Falaba District Women Network, Mrs. Fatmata Baby Turay considered climate actions as women driven actions. Sequel to this, she underscored the significance of supporting women to adopt Climate-Smart farming practices such as tree planting and other sustainable alternatives activities to sustain their livelihoods.
She said women are now integrating to lead climate actions within their communities in Falaba District due largely to the climate impact on their livelihoods. She on behalf of her female colleagues appealled for more support for women inclusion to climate projects, and strengthen capacity-building trainings that would enhance their livelihoods sustainability.
Delivering the Keynote statement, the Minister of Environment and Climate Change, Mr. Jiwoh Emmanuel Abdulai informed the stakeholders that the Ministry remained committed to not only formulating policies but to source funding to address environmental challenges at community level. He noted that the project is to help prevent early disaster and to protect the forest sustainably so that it could provide the needed services like water, food, and improve agriculture to sustain livelihoods within the two districts.
The Minister said government has considered these Districts as the favourite beneficiaries to the project due to the rate at which their forest covers and wetlands have been seriously depleted. He maintained that as the districts host some of the protected areas notably Wara Wara mountain, Loma mountain, Lake Sonfon and other protected areas, he called on stakeholders to embrace the project so that future generations would also benefit from their natural resources. He reemphasized that the project would be a community driven one with active community participation.
The Minister acknowledged the roles of the Paramount Chiefs as partners in development who should take precautionary measures to protect the forests against indiscriminate logging. He disclosed that the transformative step undertaken by the Ministry is to grant concession areas for sustainable logging. He noted that the project is about how the Ministry and its partners would work together, whilst looking forward to having community bye -laws in place for community led actions to manage the forest resource effectively. He continued that this approach would leverage economic growth and livelihoods sustainability through carbon credit opportunities. Sequel to this, he said the Ministry is undertaking field assessments to fully understand the current status of the country’s forest through the implementation of the National Forest Inventory project.
He entreated all stakeholders to cherish and own the project with the goal of restoring the degraded areas in Koinadugu and Falaba Districts.
Compiled by: Samuel Konkofa Koroma, The Knowledge Management and Communication Expert, and Lahai Kpaka Senior Information Officer MoECC.