By Prince J Musa in Kenema
Conservation Society Sierra Leone with funds from the European Union has in a community sensitization meeting urged communities to protect and conserve their reserved forests.
The stakeholder engagement covers three chiefdoms of Niawa, Small Bo and Nongowa in Kenema district in commemoration of the International Forest day with the theme, "Forest Restoration: “A path to recovery and wellbeing" at Kpai Village, Small Bo chiefdom Kenema district.
In his statement at the meeting, the chairman of the event Amara Salam Conteh, disclosed that the Conservation Society considers the International Forest day to be one of the significant events that needs to be observed since conserving the environment has become one of the focus points in the world due to human activities that have contributed to deforestation.
”This event is intended to prepare the mindset of forest edge communities in order to see reason why they are to protect the forest,” he said.
Referencing the benefits of protecting forests, he said it’s a source of most drugs manufactured, adding that human safety and other species in the environment can’t be guaranteed without plants on earth, but that a lot of illegal human activities have deforested the biodiversity and negatively affected everybody in the society.
The National Coordinator for the project Imran Kemoh Sowa disclosed that it’s a three year project funded by EU and that it works exclusively on the Gola land scape and the Kambui forest reserves in Kenema.
He said the biodiversity of the forest has been destroyed over the years and the animals are no more considered to be safe in a place where they need to be protected.
He added that the engagement with the communities will help them know the value of conservation and how it will impact on their lives if they protect it.
The Environmental Education Coordinator, Kenema District Conservation Society, Victor Fabba informed the stakeholders that CSL is one of the leading conservation and environmental advocacy organizations in Sierra Leone and that the organization do capacitate forest edge communities on how to protect and preserve the forest as a way to complement government efforts in ensuring environmental protection.
He added that the conservation society PAPFor project is implemented in the southern and eastern provinces within the Gola Rainforest areas and the Kambui forest, and said the importance of forest conservation and environmental protection has several benefits to living things because ‘’without forest no living organism will exist on planet earth,” he said.
He encouraged the communities to embark on more tree planting in the deforested areas within the forest rather than engaging in felling of more trees especially for lodging, mining, charcoal burning, hunting among others.
The Acting Superintendent and Community Development Coordinator, Gola Rainforest Fomba Amara Kanneh outlined the gains of forest conservation in communities within the Gola forest areas over the years and called on the attention of Conservation Society for an alternative livelihood for the forest communities, saying the protection of forest is for the protection of humanity on earth and therefore the idea of environmental management should be everybody’s business.
Mr. Kanneh urged the community people not to underestimate the issue of forest protection otherwise in case of any future disaster; they will be the first victims to suffer from the negative effect of the environment.
The representative of Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Kenema, Abdul Kebbie emphasized the significance of protecting the environment as government has entrusted the power to EPA to ensure the management and the protection of environment in the country.
He stated that, thirty years ago the world was occupied with 31% of forest but that has dropped drastically as a result of human activities which have led to global warming and climate change that has adversely affected the environment, agricultural productivity and increased temperature in the atmosphere.
He said that the level of deforestation around the Kambui forest is too high.
“If people are not careful with the Kambui forest there will be a time when drought will affect Kenema city and other surrounding villages within the Kambui forest,” he said.
Kebbie assured of the support of EPA to the Conservation Society in complementing their efforts to educate the people to see the importance of preserving the environment safely.
Copyright © 2021 Politico Online (19/04/21)
