The Minister of Environment and Climate Change, Jiwoh Abdullia, has, in a stakeholder’s engagement with local authorities in the North/West Region, described the Paramount Chiefs as critical partners to sustainable forest management in the country.
This engagement, held on Monday, 4th May 2026 at the Bombali District Council Hall, attracted Paramount Chiefs and local council representatives from the four North/West districts of Bombali, Tonkolili, Koinadugu, and Falaba.
He called on local authorities to own the process, support the data collection teams, and contribute meaningfully to reforms on sustainable forest management for both economic and climate resilience purposes.
The Minister noted that the data from the National Forestry Inventory will help identify the different types of forests, their locations, and conditions, to support policies for sustainable forest management.
In his statement, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) Country Representative, Saeed Abunakarr Bancie, stated that the forest underpins biodiversity, soil health, water quality, rainfall patterns, and climate regulation, noting that they also have immense potential for mitigating climate change, supporting food security, reducing poverty, and sustaining livelihoods.
He also stated that Global Forest Watch data shows that Sierra Leone had 5.43 million hectares of tree cover in 2010 (about 75% of land area). By 2022, the country lost over 120,000 hectares (2.2% of forest cover), with a corresponding emission of about 63.5 million tons of CO2.
However, optimistic that, by leveraging the hard evidence gathered through this Inventory, we can transform these challenges into a powerful opportunity to restore the vital functionality of our forests, secure our water catchments, and create sustainable economic opportunities for our communities.
He reaffirms the FAO’s commitment to sustainable management of the environment for effective food production, while thanking the EU for providing the resources for the project.
Presenting the overview of the project, the National Coordinator, Patrick Abu Mattia, stated that the Support to Sustainable Forestry in Sierra Leone, the National Forest Inventory, aims to promote the sustainable use of forest/tree resources to pave the way to increase access to climate finance, leading to community and the country’s economic development.
This, Mattia further stated that data will be collected from a total of 464 clusters from different land cover throughout the country, of which 120 are located around the three districts in the north/west region and 34 mangroves in the south, west, and part of the north/east regions.
Senior Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change, Elizabeth Ellie, noted that the first point of call when entering chiefdoms is the paramount chiefs.
She informed them that the last forest inventory was done over 50 years ago, and with lots of activities going on in the forest, the need to take stock to know what is available cannot be overemphasised.
Paramount chiefs present called for government support through funding and other logistics, to empower them to protect the forest and environment.
They highlighted several challenges, from funding to legal issues that they faced in developing bylaws to protect the environment.
They called for effective collaboration in sustainable forest management and climate-related issues and commit to supporting the NFI exercise in their respective chiefdoms.
Credit – NFI Communications
Copyright –Published in Expo Times News on Wednesday, 6th May 2026 (ExpoTimes News – Expo Media Group (expomediasl.com)
