Deforestation

By Darius Barrolle, Senior Communications Specialist   Once again, entertainment-education has proven to be an effective tool for increasing knowledge and promoting best practices in forest and wildlife conservation. After only 3 months of broadcast, the “Forest Blessings” radio drama and call-in show series has captured the hearts and minds of over 4 million people,…

“Forest Blessings,” a 24-episode radio drama series produced by the West Africa Biodiversity and Climate Change (WA BiCC) Program, has officially launched in the Mano River Union (MRU) countries of Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Côte d’Ivoire. The drama was created to raise awareness about forest conservation issues, including deforestation, forest degradation, and biodiversity loss. These…

By Jacob Tweh, Wild Chimpanzee Foundation Many might have said that 16-year-old Linda Nyanway’s future looked bleak as she took her now-husband’s hand in marriage. Linda’s parents divorced when she was just three, leaving her to spend most of her childhood with her grandmother in River Gee County, Liberia. Her grandmother worked as a subsistence…

Felicia Kyne may not look like a superhero. She can’t fly and does not carry magical weapons. But the soft-spoken 23-year-old woman from a remote village in Liberia is on the frontlines of a global battle to preserve biodiversity. Read the full story here.

By Nouhou Ndam, WA BiCC Forestry and Landscape Coordinator Guinea is known as the “Water Reservoir” of West Africa.” Many rivers, including the Niger, Senegal River and Gambia River, originate from Guinea and flow across over a dozen countries. Guinea is endowed with biodiversity that is unique in West Africa, especially in its dense and…

The Ziama-Wonegizi-Wologizi (ZWW) forest complex, shared by Guinea and Liberia, is home to more than 25% of Africa’s mammals. Nearly 90% of its native vegetation has been lost, however, because of unsustainable human activities. To sustainably manage this globally unique refuge of plant and animal biodiversity and essential ecosystem services such as water, the governments…

The tropical stillness is cut by the sound of a low-speed buzzsaw. Or so I think. On closer listen, this is the drone of thousands of buzzing bees. I instinctively tense up. My mind screams danger. To Jenkins Zarweah, the sound of bees is the sound of music. He smiles broadly as bees buzz benignly…

In rural Sierra Leone, 60-year-old Vandi Sama sits on a stool and patiently weaves together the skin-like bark of a rattan stem. Although he has already harvested the poles, steamed them to shape a chair frame and separated the plants’ various parts based on how they can be used, it might be another whole day…

Community Youth Join the Ranks to Protect the Wonegizi Forest A major factor and critical step in successful conservation is getting people to understand and appreciate the value of biodiversity in all of its aspects. Biodiversity is a scientific concept that has many similarities to traditional conservation and respect for the living world. Therefore, another…

Voinjama, Liberia- The governments of Liberia and Guinea are to shortly signed a bilateral framework agreement on the conservation and sustainable management of the Ziama-Wonegizi-Wologizi Transboundary Forest Landscape in Liberia’s northwestern Lofa County. The decision follows a two-day validation meeting of two key instruments, which brought together 71 representatives from the both countries in Liberia Northwestern…