Sierra Leone is threatened by climatic hazards such as seasonal droughts, thunderstorms, landslides, heat waves, floods and altered rainfall patterns. Poor communities have suffered the most from these impacts. Crop production for instance is highly vulnerable to climatic change and has been affected by prolonged periods of droughts as well as heavy rainfall. Subsistence crop production is highly vulnerable to the impacts of this increasing weather variability.
LDCF funding for Sierra Leone is designed to be catalytic for scaling-up adaptation to climate change using sustainable land and natural resources management. Measures include:
1. reduced use of bush fallow systems
2. improved water management in uplands and inland valley swamps
3. improved access to weather and climate information, through targeted technical and institutional capacity development and on-the ground activities (including demonstrations).
The project is working with existing community structures such as the Farmers Business Organizations and Farmer Field Schools. The LDCF components are fully embedded in the RCPRP-PLUS in a synergetic manner that would ensure that the LDCF funding is covering additional costs associated with the adaptation needs that were identified in the NAPA and further discussed at all levels (national, provincial and grass-roots).