Minister of Environment, Jiwoh Emmanuel Abdulai has told a forum at the COP28 that Sierra Leone is looking for partnerships that provide opportunities for knowledge sharing, technology transfer, technical assistance, and investment into the country’s natural assets.
“Nature has regulated the planet’s climate for centuries and we think leveraging nature’s technology must be part of the solution to addressing Climate Change. The Upper Guinea Forests which run through Sierra Leone are one of the planet’s major lungs. The mangroves along the west coast of the country are super-efficient at carbon sequestration. These terrestrial forests and wetlands have been providing carbon sequestration services to the world free of change for over a century,” he said.
He however, noted that undervaluation of the assets producing these services had led to land degradation and deforestation, noting that they could reverse the trend if the world starts valuing these natural assets correctly with capital investment in the natural carbon sinks.
Minister Abdulai cited that the 2016 Report by West African Biodiversity and Climate Change programme measured over 240,000 hectares of mangroves in Sierra Leone with estimated 25% (60,000) lost or degraded, adding that the figure may have increased recently. He disclosed that a pilot programme carried out on few hectares in Sierra Leone showed that restoration could be achieved in areas considered severely degraded or lost with degraded areas automatically regenerating themselves if left undisturbed.
The Environment Minister also stated that Sierra Leone would like to restore at least 30,000 hectares of mangroves by 2030, while maintaining existing primary mangrove forests. This, he said, would benefit local communities through protection of coastline from flooding and coastal erosion, restoration of breeding grounds for marine ecosystems, and provision of employment from the restoration and protection efforts.
