Deputy Minister of the Environment and Climate Change has launched the ‘Sustainable and Integrated Inception Management of the Western Area Peninsular Project for Sierra Leone’.
The launch at the inception meeting organised by Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change at the Radison Blue Hotel in Freetown, brought together various stakeholders including Ministries Departments and Agencies (MDAs), Implementing Partners, Civil Societies, Community Stakeholders and the media.
UNDP Resident Representative, Fredrick Ampiah said the inception meeting has laid the foundation for a successful project implementation that sought after the creation of a share understanding to present the technical elements and approaches of the project which could review and make adjustments to the global framework.
The UNDP Representative expressed optimism over the roll out of the project to protecting the Western Area Peninsular (WAP) which could ensure the continuous water supply to the Freetown municipality and meet multiple objectives notably, biodiversity conservation, carbon storage and also contribute to land degradation neutrality objectives. He maintained that the participation of MDAs, civil societies, media and other relevant partners has signalled collective commitment to support the government of Sierra Leone to address issues which affect the environment and WAP in particular.
He disclosed that UNDP and the government of Sierra Leone through the Environment Protection Agency (EPA-SL), initiated this 6 year project as one of the essential interventions for climate change mitigations that looked at initial studies to structure the WAP project in such that government address key challenges directly related to climate change.
Fredrick Ampiah made a clarion call for all relevant stakeholders and experts, project team, CSOs and the media to set the pace to transition the WAP project from paper to actual implementation. He acknowledged the urgent need for a comprehensive and conceptualized understanding of the vulnerability and adaptation to the impact of climate change.
He reaffirmed UNDP’s continuous commitment to support Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change to addressing environmental issues for an increased resilience to climate change and other shocks.
The Chairman of Oversight Committee on Environment and Climate Change in Parliament, Hon. Yusuf Mackery informed participants that few community stakeholders form various communities along the Western area peninsular submitted a petition letter to the committee on Environment and Climate Change in Parliament which indicates their dissatisfaction over land degradation, unlawful deforestation and the increasing rate of encroachment into the greenbelt zone.
Sequel to this, he took into consideration the significance to roll out the project, noting that the involvement of community stakeholders to serve as ambassadors on the project would be critical to make it sustainable.
The Committee Chairman disclosed that there have been several findings by the Committee at the Western Area Peninsular notably deforestation and other illegal activities which have threaten the sustainability of Guma Dam and peoples’ lives in communities which are located along the peninsula area.
He intimated that Parliament is ready to support the resolutions taken by participants at the end of the inception meeting which could sustain the project and to make the environment safe for future generation.
The Deputy Minister of Environment and Climate Change, Hon. Mima Y.M Sobba-Stephens whilst launching the WAP project at the inception meeting gave brief overview of the Global Environment Facility (GEF), noting that GEF started its operations in Sierra Leone since 1996, with the pipeline entry of the project, ‘Enabling Sierra Leone to prepare its First National Communication’ which was in response to its communications to United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
She continued that as a result of the disruption of the civil war, all other GEF projects came to close but were later implemented between 2001 and 2008 after the end of the civil war.
Hon. Sobba-Stephens noted that the GEF support resulted in the preparation of consolidated national environment strategies and plans, and also enable Sierra Leone to meet its obligations to the main international conventions with number of projects been developed which have further GEF enabling activities to also contribute to the 2008 amendment of the Environmental Agency Act.
The Deputy Minister took cognizance of the initiation of the project which started in 2018 but was approved for implementation this year, 2023. “The project embodies the essence of sustainable development and the principle of thinking globally, acting locally hence it aimed to strengthen conditions for the sustainable and integrated management of multiples-use landscapes to protect globally significant biodiversity, safeguard ecosystem services, generate local and national socio-economic benefits, and advance towards land degradation neutrality” she maintained.
She commended UNDP for its expertise and dedication to put the project document together. She entreated that the Western Area Peninsular National Park occupied the heart of Western peninsular which became a forest reserve in 1916, with an area of about 17,688 hectres.
She disclosed that the peninsular forest is home to various endangered species including a wide variety of endangered birds. Madam Sobba-Stephens affirmed that the reserve forest has suffered from continuous deforestation predominantly due to encroachment and other related activities exacerbated by massive urbanization.
Deputy Minister, Hon. Sobba-Stephens intimated that the impacts of climate change are global in scope and unprecedented in scale notably, from shifting weather patterns which threaten food production to rising sea levels which also increase the risk of catastrophic flooding and threaten heavily populated river deltas, forest fires and significant loss of biodiversity.
She called on local communities, civil societies, development partners and other organizations for their commitment to protecting the Western Area Peninsular National Park.
Hon. Sobba-Stephens emphasized that the Government and its partners remained fully committed to play a pivotal role in conservation efforts including to preserve biodiversity, to combat land degradation and to phase out persistent organic pollutants.
She unequivocally said that this project would have bigger positive impact for the people of Sierra Leone.
