land use – Lost Freetown

November 22, 2018

The day the mountain fell: Sierra Leone’s mudslide

Two weeks before the landslide, Bala and his team stood beneath the Sugarloaf Mountain in Regent and told local school students about the dangers of deforestation, of the risks of landslides, of the importance of the peninsula forest in providing clean water for the people.

Two weeks later, dozens of those same children were dead – lost beneath the thousands of tonnes of earth and stone that slipped off the mountainside on the morning of August 14 (2017).

September 19, 2017

Flooding in Freetown: Why and what next?

A moratorium established to stop encroachment into protected areas of the Western Peninsular Forest has not been enforced. The Environmental Protection Agency’s deputy director Mohammed Bah said in 2015 that “irresponsible actions taken on the hills will affect the city greatly”. But construction in these areas continues with impunity, perhaps linked to the fact that many residents are politically connected. The rate of deforestation is alarming and the associated impacts are being felt across the city and not just during the rainy season.

September 17, 2017

Building Citizen and Community Resilience to Respond to Emergencies

Though local residents, volunteers, faith groups and the community at large are proactive self-organisers and have always been the ‘first and critical emergency response’ — their contribution is often unacknowledged, thereby reinforcing the narrative that it’s only institution-led efforts that have an impact in minimising or reducing the scale of disasters.

June 10, 2017

Flying over Freetown

Take a 2 minute tour of the Freetown Peninsula

January 17, 2017

Destruction of The Western Area Forest Reserve

Satellite images from Google Earth show the rapid erosion of the Western Area Forest Reserve. This is alarming for a host of reasons including habitat destruction and loss of biodiversity, increased risk of flooding and landslides, and critically the destruction of water catchment areas which are the main sources of fresh water in Freetown.

December 23, 2016

Coastal Land Reclamation

Satellite images from Google Earth show extensive land reclamation in the Kroo Bay settlement in Central Freetown. Kroo Bay is not unique in this regard, with large swathes of coastal areas in and around Freetown being reclaimed. These areas are increasingly at risk from environmental hazards and climate change.

December 23, 2016

Disappearing Mangroves

Satellite images from Google Earth showing the destruction of the mangroves at Aberdeen Creek in just five years. The images also show extensive land reclamation along the edges of the Creek including adjacent to Lumley Beach.

October 21, 2016

Audiograms: experiments in sharing audio content

We’re experimenting with new ways of generating and sharing audio content through social media. Please listen and share these two ‘Audiograms’ that were created from work produced during our recent Environmental Reporting Workshops in Freetown.

August 24, 2016

Environmental Reporting Workshops, Freetown

I’m pleased to have been part of the recent environmental reporting workshops organised by the Lost Freetown Collective (LFC) and Hirondelle USA, and hosted by Concept Multimedia. Led by co-director of LFC, Nazia Parvez, the workshops brought together Freetown-based journalists and media professionals to explore the theme: ‘coastal zone management and climate change.’

July 19, 2016

Mangrove Restoration: Case Studies from Thailand, Vietnam, and India

Mangrove forests form an integral part of coastal ecosystems and play a key role in climate change mitigation. Growing in tropical and sub-tropical tidal areas, such as estuaries and marine shorelines, their roots extend deep into the coastal sediment. They serve as effective natural barriers to rising sea levels and flooding, bearing the brunt of storm surges and preventing excessive sedimentation. According to Corcoran, Ravilious and Skuja (2007), mangroves also serve as major carbon sinks, reducing the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere together with other greenhouse gases.