The West Africa Biodiversity Climate Change (WA BiCC) on Monday 11 commenced a four days stakeholders training on Vulnerability Assessment of the coastal communities in Sierra Leone at the Kona Lodge Hotel in Freetown.
The training is conducted by WA BiCC in partnership with the lead implementing partner Tetra Tech ARD which is focused on Vulnerability Assessment of the coastal communities and is funded by the United States Department for International Development (USAID).
The objective of the program is to check whether the upland forest, coastal resources and wild life that support the socio ecological and economic resilience of West Africa are at risk; projected changes in the West African climate, temperature increase causing unpredictable rainfall and the greater frequency of droughts and floods which will affect livelihoods and challenge economic growth and resilience across the region.
Explaining about the essence of the training the Executive Director of the National Protective Area Authority (NPAA) Dr. Kolleh Bangura said the West Africa Biodiversity Climate Change Programme is a blessing to the country as energy usage and environmental management is threatening the coastal eco-system.
He said climate change is a serious issue in Sierra Leone considering the drop in rain fall which he said is not encouraging adding that the country is also too dry during the dry season which is caused by climate change.
Kolleh Bangura said currently the country is recording limited rain fall and usually occurs within six weeks which he said is caused by forest depletion.
He called for sustainable environmental management to mitigate the dangers of climate change in the country by maintaining biodiversity for future generation.
Deputy Chief of Party and Climate Change Specialist Tiega Anada for WA BiCC said the focus of the Program is to build and strengthen the ECOWAS, Abidjan convention and the Mano River Union partnerships so as to work together to better understand and address policy, practice and research gaps.
He said the Program will address both direct and indirect drivers of natural resource degradation to improve livelihoods and natural ecosystems across the region and they will work with partners at the community, national and regional levels to strengthen policies and systems that will improve natural resource management.
He added that the projects have three components which include combating wildlife trafficking through the revision and operationalization of national and regional polices; improve coastal resilience in West Africa through integrated planning and strengthening the capacity of local and national frameworks, whilst reducing deforestation, degradation and biodiversity loss.
Sylwia Trzaska WABICC Team Leader from the Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CISESIN) in the Earth Institute at Colombia University New York USA said the objective of the training will critically look into the causes of the rise of sea level at the rates of 1.4m per annum.
She said most farming communities do not rely on mangrove for their livelihood whilst fishing communities rely heavily on mangroves and other natural resources which is causing fear for depletion of the resource and rise of climate change issues in Sierra Leone.
She concluded that the West Africa Biodiversity Climate Change (WA BiCC) stakeholders training on Vulnerability Assessment of the coastal communities will target 24 villages in main mangrove areas in Sierra Leone like the Scarcies river estuary, the Sierra Leone River Estuary, the Yawri Bay, and the Sherbro River Estuary and 240 households will be interviewed with 72 focus group discussions.
A final report will be presented to stakeholders in Sierra Leone for action after the conclusion of the vulnerability assessment of coastal communities` on climate change impact on Sierra Leone.
By Saidu Bah
Tuesday July 12, 2016
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