How a Community EcoGuard Program Helped One Woman Go from School Dropout to Breadwinner
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...
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....
Stuck in the Mud: WA BiCC Driver Makes Impassable Roads Passable
By Nouhou Ndam, Forestry and Landscape Specialist Touring forest-edge communities in West African countries is a unique adventure. The communities tend to be connected by muddy roads, with farmers using passenger cars and trucks to transport themselves and their goods....
Mapping of the Sherbro River Estuary: A Step Toward Biodiversity Protection in Sierra Leone
By Zebedee Njisuh, WA BiCC Landscape Manager The recent field mapping exercise of the Sherbro River Estuary (SRE) marked a fresh approach to field mapping in Sierra Leone; one that recognized community members as important stakeholders to environmental sustainability. The mapping...
Creating Environmentally Friendly Livelihoods in Forest-buffer Communities in the Kindia Region of Guinea
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...
Guinea and Liberia Forge Historic Partnership for the Conservation of the Ziama-Wonegizi-Wologizi Forest Landscape
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...
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...
From Anomalure to Zebra Duiker – Spotlight on West Africa’s Mammals
By Fauna & Flora International If you thought zebra duiker and otter shrew were four different animals, think again. These are just two of the elusive creatures that Fauna & Flora International (FFI) and partners were hoping to track down...
Training of Judges and Prosecutors on Wildlife Crime Issues
In collaboration with the Ministry of Water and Forestry of Côte d'Ivoire, WA BiCC organized a training workshop for French-speaking ECOWAS member states from the 21st to the 25th of October on the application of CITES by judges and...
Behind the Scenes: Establishing Village Savings and Loan Associations (VSLAs) in Coastal Sierra Leone
Written by Francis Reffell When my team arrived in Bonthe Municipality, it felt like we’d landed in a rustic paradise, rife with the vestiges of its past colonial influence. Severely damaged infrastructure, caused by either abandonment or the civil war,...