Aruna Turay, AYV News, March 21, 202

Siera Leone forest: Before and After

Each year on March 21, the International Day of Forests is celebrated to raise awareness of the importance of all types of forests.

Around 1.6 billion people depend on forests for their livelihood, medicines, fuel, food, and shelter. Forests are also home to more than 80 percent of land animals, insects, and plants. There are 3 trillion trees in all the forests on Earth.

Deforestation remains a challenging problem, exemplified by Sierra Leone’s loss of more than 30% of its tree cover since 2000 and limited funds with which to create new forests.

Sierra Leone has lost an estimated 35% of its forest cover since 2000. With only 5,500 wild Western chimpanzees remaining, the chimpanzee population’s fate reflects the health of the forest.

At COP26, the Government of Sierra Leone committed to planting 25 million trees by 2030 over 960,000 HA.

Recently, a U.N. report said a national park that provides clean water to Sierra Leone’s capital Freetown is reported to be critically under threat due to human activities such as land grabbing, charcoal burning, quarrying and marijuana cultivation.

The park has lost about 26% of its 18,000 hectares (180 square kilometres) of forest cover since the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) started measuring it in 2016, according to the latest analysis.

The report warned that deforestation could contribute towards “slope destabilization, water shortages, landslides and floods” and called for the close monitoring of forest coverage to protect the city’s main water sources.

The city of Freetown is built on a forested peninsula, which is mostly made up of national park land. Its water comes from reservoirs in the mountains, but deforestation is causing rain to drain off the hillsides rather than seeping through roots into the soil and streams.

Sierra Leone’s Environment Minister, Jiwoh Abdulai said: “The issue of deforestation on the Western Area peninsula is tragic, worrying and alarming. Enforcing the laws and policies is a major challenge. I am working on a new reforestation policy”.

Forests are defined as a large group of trees. In order to be considered an actual forest, trees have to cover at least 0.5 hectares.

In November 1971, during the Conference of the Food and Agriculture Organisation, member states voted to establish World Forestry Day to be held on March 21st of each year.

From 2007 to 2012, the Center for International Forestry Research convened a series of six Forest Days. These days were held in conjunction with annual meetings on climate change. On November 28, 2012, the United Nations General Assembly established the International Day of Forests. The first event was held on March 21st, 2013.