The Gola Forest Reserves, covering an area of 74,800ha, are located along the southeastern border of Sierra Leone. This is a priority area for biodiversity conservation in the Upper Guinea Forest Zone and the key forest conservation area in Sierra Leone, representing 50 percent of the country’s remaining Upper Guinea Lowland Rainforest.
The Gola Rainforest Conservation Concession project is a new initiative that seeks to secure the long-term conservation of the Gola forests for biodiversity by upgrading the forest reserves to a national park. The project has three phases. In the first phase, a management plan will be developed over a period of two years. This plan will form the basis for a long-term conservation concession agreement, as well as spelling out the key steps necessary for the forest reserves to be gazetted as a national park in the second phase, a 25-year period of the concession. Funds for the first phase have been secured from the Global Conservation Fund, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), and other donors. The RSPB and the Conservation Society of Sierra Leone (CSSL) formally applied to the Government of Sierra Leone for a conservation concession for the Gola Forest Reserves. This has been approved, and the development phase will commence soon.
To achieve the protected area objectives through a conservation concession approach, RSPB and CSSL will engage stakeholders at a variety of levels. They will: form a project partnership that will jointly own the concession; engage the Forestry Division and build its capacity to enable it to patrol the reserves effectively, and engage the seven chiefdom communities around the reserves by supporting community development and participation in the day-to-day management of the reserves.
The actual royalties and fees to be paid will be negotiated on the basis of the forest being protected as an asset and the level of support and engagement given to the Forestry Division in the long-term management of the reserves. Community royalties will be negotiated based on the roles and responsibilities that communities will have in managing the reserve and the amount of development support they receive. A Trust Fund will be established to support the core operational costs of the concession. These costs will include staff, logistics, maintenance, patrolling, community development support, and biodiversity conservation.
For more information, contact cssl@sierratel.sl