By Sahr Ibrahim Komba
Sierra Leone Land Alliance trained over 50 university students on environmental emergencies on climate change, loss of biodiversity and conservation solution in Sierra Leone. The event took place at the CCSL Hall in Freetown on Wednesday 4th September, 2024.
In his statement, the Director of Sierra Leone Land Alliance, John Paul Bai said that the country is home to one-quarter of biodiversity and has the network of 50 protected areas covering 17% of its land mass-including forest reserve and non-hunting forest reserve and this number promises to increase adding that the government is committed to increasing the number of protected areas to at least 30% by 2030.
He disclosed that many protected and conservation areas overlap with towns and villages such as Regent, Bathurst, and Leicester among others, have been affected by human activities.
He urged the youths to champion the fight against climate change noting that climate has negatively impacted Freetown’s water supply escalating disaster like landslides and flooding. He added that the construction of houses in disaster prone areas is pushing humanity to the blink.
He called on the public to stop land grabbing, charcoal burning and other farming activates that threaten the environment.
He disclosed that Freetown is experiencing massive stone and sand mining in recent times and that as a result, rivers are hotter than ever.
He called on the public to keep the goal of stopping land degradation and promote conservation practices across the board. He mentioned that the fight requires greater ambition on mitigation and immediate concrete action to reduce occurrence of climate change and land degradation to net zero
He said that they have established the Sierra Leone Youth Biodiversity Network in Koinadugu District in order to help authorities to find common grounds in the fight against climate change. He noted young people have been targeted to lead in the environmental issues in the Western Area. He urged policy makers, stakeholders especially the Freetown City Council and Western Rural Council to develop strategic action plan for climate mitigation intervention to save Mama Salone.
Speaking at the event, a representative from Environment Emergencies, Ministry of Environment and climate change said that they are collaborating with partners to develop disaster mitigation plan. He called on the public to avoid disaster prone areas adding that these places are not safe for living. He urged the youths to cascade the message to their various communities. He called on authorities to raise awareness among local communities about the impact of ecosystem conservation, suitable land use and long-term benefit s of adopting environmentally-friendly practices.
