SIERRA LEONE Sierra Leone has substantial mineral reserves, but still depends much on slash-and-burn cultivation for agriculture. Logging, clearing for cattle grazing, fuelwood collection, and mining have produced a dramatic drop in forest cover in Sierra Leone since the 1980s.

Until 2002, Sierra Leone lacked a forest management system due to a brutal civil war that resulted in tens of thousands of deaths and the displacement of more than 2 million people (about one-third of the population). On paper, 55 protected areas covered 4.5 percent of Sierra Leone as of 2003. The country has 2,090 known species of higher plants, 147 mammals, 626 birds, 67 reptiles, 35 amphibians, and 99 fish species.

In June 2005, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) and Bird-life International agreed to support a conservation-sustainable development project in the Gola Forest in southeastern Sierra Leone, the most important surviving fragment of rainforest in Sierra Leone.

Deforestation rates have increased 7.3 percent since the end of the civil war.




Image copyright Google Earth, MDA EarthSet, DigitalGlobe 2005

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Last updated: 4 Feb 2006