Strengthening youth and women's actions for the sustainable protection of the Guma Water Catchment

The Western Area Peninsula Forest Reserve is one of Sierra Leone’s eight biodiversity hot spots and hosts about 90 per cent of Sierra Leone’s terrestrial biodiversity. It also houses the Guma Water Catchment, which provides water to the residents of Freetown. However, despite its importance, the forest is diminishing rapidly. About 500,000 trees have been lost every year since 2009 due to logging and slash-and-burn farming among other causes. This project used a Forest Landscape Restoration (FLR) approach. It aimed to secure and collaboratively rehabilitate a forested watershed. The project planted around 10,000 trees in cooperation with the #FreetownTheTreeTown initiative. The project promoted an innovative approach in the field of reforestation, in which the locals are offered financial incentives to take care of community-planted trees.