May 11, 2021
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 maneuverings of the indigenes is done with reckless abandon and no regard for conservation.
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 concern 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. 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 Le. 10,000 has now doubled to Le20,000 -that is when you go close to where it is being produced.
And in Freetown where the market value for charcoal is such that the bag goes for between Le30,000 to Le.40,000, the trade has become attractive to people who are without any form of skill training or good education to get themselves jobs.
In a big compound along Kissy road in Freetown there is a charcoal depot. The black dust from the pile makes you ask no further that charcoal business goes on there. The sellers are always themselves covered in black as they pack and unpack the bags of charcoal. Some people buy few bags and retail further by loading them in small polythene bags for small family consumption. Families have made it their business to cover cost for feeding, school fees, medical, house rent, etc. It is what they have done for years and the industry has lead them to make partnership with producers and wholesale and retail-sale groups.
I visited a nearby village in Bo, Njiagbla and met one Pa Mohamed whose business is charcoal production. There were piles of charcoal bags in his compound. Pa Mohamed is married with kids. He explained to me that he produces and sells charcoal to”…take care of his wife and children”. And out of charcoal production he manages “….to send the kids to school” He is an ageable man in his late fifties. 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 amount of bags that he produces. Asked if he realizes that charcoal production affects the environment he lives in adversely he was very dismissive and added”……that he won’t stop as it is a sure means of survival for himself and family and that the family stands to be starved or live in penury if he stops” And he is 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 swam 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 other wise 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 Health. So according to him they will be needing foreign intervention if they should succeed.