Enhancing Sustainable Land Management and biodiversity conservation through innovative financing for an integrated Climate resilience in Koinadugu District

Land degradation (LD) has been recognized as a serious and persistent problem in Sierra Leone, affecting agricultural productivity, livelihoods, and biodiversity. Despite a comprehensive legal frameworks and international commitments, degradation trends can still be observed and are accelerating in some areas, and Koinadugu and Falaba districts in particular have been identified as hotspots of land degradation in the government’s 2018 Land Degradation Neutrality report. The proposed project’s main objective is to strengthen sustainable land and forest ecosystem management and governance resulting in enhanced carbon sequestration and resilient livelihoods in Koinadugu and Falaba Districts. It will adopt a strong gender, women and youth focused approach to ensure those mostly vulnerable have their needs addressed. The fundamental aim is to restore degraded lands, improve livelihoods and address climate change impacts.

To help lower the barriers to SLM and land restoration activities and achieve the main objective, the project will implement a mix of interventions that will target i) degraded forests and land systems in the Koinadugu and Falaba districts of Sierra Leone, and the livelihoods of the communities that are directly dependent on these landscapes; ii) the institutional, organizational and technical capacities necessary at different levels of governance to effectively plan, implement and monitor restoration and sustainable land management activities, and iii) nove financing approaches for financing restoration.

Overall, the project will bring benefits to the populations of nine chiefdoms within the two districts, will contribute significantly to achieving Land Degradation Neutrality in Sierra Leone, will contribute to biodiversity conservation and will significantly recude Co2 emission through the restoration and sustainable management of land resources, in particular forests.