By Dadson A. Musa

Sierra Leone, located along the west coast of Africa is blessed with lush green vegetation and is home to forest, rich in fine timber. But due to the high unemployment rate and the prevailing poverty, indigenes are turning to the natural environment for survival or sustenance. This survival move by indigenes is carried about recklessly as it is unsustainable. The forest cover and the trees are being cut down to produce charcoal and as the trade booms the green vegetation in Sierra Leone is fast disappearing which has raised serious concerns for the preservation and conservation of the natural habitat. The demand for charcoal in the country has increased due to the lack of adequate supply of electricity and other forms of energy. Charcoal is providing energy for domestic and commercial purposes.

The trade in charcoal in the country is booming to the extent that environmental campaigners are left worried. The demand for charcoal keeps soaring as homes are without electricity for major part of the day. And people need it for cooking and for other commercial purposes. The bag of charcoal which was NLe. 10,000 has now gone up to NLe 55 in the provinces and over Nle80 in Freetown depending on which part of the city you are living. The trade has become attractive to people who are without any form of skill training or good education to get themselves jobs. . Some people buy few bags and retail further by loading them in small polythene bags for small family consumption. A charcoal producer, Foday Matia when contacted told me that after selling he uses the money to ‘buy food in the house, medication for the family, school material for kids.’  When told that the trade he is involved in has the potential to destroy his environment and cause problems for children and grandchildren one day, his reply was ‘if I don’t do this how do I survive?’  So many other families have made it their business to cover cost for feeding, school materials, medical, house rent, etc. It is what they have done for years and the industry has led them to make partnership with producers and wholesale and retail-sale groups.

To get what seems for them to be black gold (charcoal), they cut big trees down and remove the branches. These cut down trees are reduced to logs and the logs are further sliced to manageable sizes. Sometimes the process is carried on even when the sliced logs are raw but sometimes, they wait until they dry up a little. A pit is dug and the sliced logs are lowered in. It is covered first with grass or palm fronds and later with soil leaving a tiny outlet for fire to be set on it. Once the fire is set the tiny hole (outlet) is blocked making sure that the sliced logs are completely covered. So, the heat and the smoke transform the logs into charcoal after a specified amount of time. Once the charcoal is ready it is being dug from the pit and further reduced to manageable sizes to be loaded into bags or polythene plastics. The wife uses some for domestic consumption and the bulk of it is put on the market. Due to lack of enough man-power(labour) pa Mohamed has a minimum number of bags that he produces. And they are doing it because the demand for charcoal keeps rising for domestic and commercial purposes especially with the unavailability or inconsistency of electricity supply in the country generally. A civil society organization based in Bo, Union for The Reformation and Development of Youth –Sierra Leone whose focus is agriculture has been encouraging youths to get involved in farming and backyard gardening which will help end hunger and is more sustainable. The Executive Director, Mustapha Kpaka has been trying hard to dissuade youths involved in charcoal production to opt instead for agriculture as a viable alternative. He is even working on alternative means of producing charcoal without recourse to cutting down trees. “This new method will soon be made public so that our environment can be preserved”, he went on. Mustapha Kpaka admitted that the law prohibits against cutting down trees in specified areas and government and environmentalists’ frown on it to save the future generation. He also recognizes that charcoal production has become rampant country-wide to the extent that bushes have become dwelling places. That poverty on the one hand and illiteracy on the other are factors driving people into “indiscriminate” cutting down of trees and producing charcoal in the country. That they as civil society are pushing for this alternative means of charcoal production and point out the dangers of deforestation and cutting down trees. Government has been doing its part but they lack the resources and man-power.

Robert A.K. Sam, acting operational officer who is a senior ranger in the forestry department, Bo, said conservation is not possible without enforcing the existing laws in the country. They have tried to control charcoal production by levying tax on every bag of charcoal produced. Also check points have been mounted across the country to ensure vehicles carrying charcoal comply with the law. And the money is used for reforestation projects. One of such projects was carried by Environment Protection Agency (EPA)by developing in-land valley swamp in the Bumpeh chiefdom within Bo district. According to him there are only 12 forest squad rangers to monitor or supervise a district of 16 chiefdoms. And that those rangers who got to retirement age have not been replaced which left a huge gap and a strain on the office. They “need logistics like vehicles, motor bikes, right gear to be effective in their duty but these are lacking or in short supply. He went on” ……. we need to sensitize and even negotiate with people who are deeply involved in charcoal production especially those who go as far as the river beds to stop otherwise disaster will always hang over our heads. The effect of this charcoal burning has seen rivers drying up quickly very early in the dry season instead of late dry season as it used to be. That the other method is to bring charcoal producers to the realization that farming is more sustainable than charcoal production, as 75% of the forest cover in Sierra Leone has disappeared. He disclosed that one way of regaining the forest cover is to encourage citizens to plant trees in their environment. This he coined in the slogan,” cut one, plant three”

As we have started experiencing floods, mudslides and late rains something needs to be done and very fast. As already Sierra Leone has been classified as the third-most vulnerable country in the world when it comes to climate change issues, according to Shout Climate Change Africa, a local NGO based in Freetown that deals in environmental issues. Government seeing the seriousness of the issue has created a whole ministry to deal with just environmental issues. According to an official from that ministry who prefers anonymity he admits that” …. the task is so enormous as setting up a new ministry takes time.” And a ministry like this one requires so much resources which the government is constrained to do thinking of the other priority areas like Free Quality Education and Feed Salone. So according to him they will be needing foreign intervention if they should succeed.

Copyright –Published in Expo Times News on Friday, February 9th, 2024 (ExpoTimes News – Expo Media Group (expomediasl.com)