• Enhance the management and governance of priority protected areas by addressing existing limitations;
• Support local communities’ initiatives aiming to enhance the livelihoods of local people whilst effectively contributing to protected areas management.

Priority needs addressed

The priority need of the project is to deliver a well-managed forest reserve, clearly demarcated and highly visible and known and appreciated by local communities, The reserve should help conserve ecosystems and maintain a rich biodiversity. It should provide ecosystem services for both humans and biodiversity and help to combat climate change. The Kambui Hills Forest Reserve forest should be co-managed by the government and the communities.

Project activities

Several years of neglect in terms of management has resulted in increased illegal and damaging human activities within the reserve. Large areas have been encroached upon and degraded through activities like chain saw logging, charcoal harvesting, mining, slash and burn farming and settlement development and hunting. The unclear boundary creates ambiguity as to where the reserve ends and where the salvage lands begin.

To reveres this situation a robust awareness campaign about the reserve, its purpose and its usefulness will be undertaken with the aim of getting the communities to subscribe to and support its conservation. The campaign will also popularize the laws governing the reserve. The ill-defined and ambiguous boundaries which rationalise encroachment will be made clearly visible through brushing of the border, beacon erection, sign posting and establishment of a buffer zone. The degraded areas will be rehabilitated.

Damage is done to the reserve as forest edge communities utilize forest resources to finance a living. The project will create opportunities for alternative livelihoods. Alternative livelihoods will divert human activities away from the reserve into the salvage lands and so reduce pressure on the former.

A management plan and local bye laws will be created in consultation with the communities and the project will obtain an agreement between all focal communities, and the National Protected Area Authority /Forestry Department, and the Conservation Society of Sierra Leone to adhere to Forest protection laws. To ensure that all parties keep to the agreements a task force who will oversee and monitor events within the forest be instituted.  A reserve governance structure will also be established.

The project will also contribute to the alleviation of poverty which is so high in the region, by establishing a loan scheme and promoting tourism.