Localising Conservation, Environmental Restoration & Sustainable Land Management - in Kono District

Sahr O Fasuluku LLB, MSc sahrfas @ yahoo dot co dot uk - September 2018 updated 4.4.2019

Target audiences: Kono Council of Chiefs, Kono District Council, chiefdom councils, civil society organisations, environmental organisations, farmer organisations, rural communities, Kono Conference delegates, Members of Parliament, Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development, Ministry of Agriculture Forestry and Food Security (MAFFS)

Goals: ⚫ Identify, reduce and reverse land degradation in Kono District. ⚫ Halt soil loss.
⚫ Improve soil fertility. ⚫ Increase agricultural productivity with Conservation Agriculture (CA). ⚫ Contribute to Sustainable Development Goals 8, 9, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 17, 1 and 2.

“Subnational governments should not be seen as mere implementers of the (SDG) Agenda.
Subnational governments are policy makers, catalysts of change and the level of government best placed to link the global goals with local communities.” (UCLG, The Sustainable Development Goals - what local governments need to know)

SUMMARY

This brief shows causes of dryland degradation in Kono District and suggests some solutions.

Since 1975, forest area in Kono District has reduced from around 34% to 15%, savanna has increased from 47% to 64%. Soil loss and soil degradation reduce agricultural yield-per-hectare. Increased land pressures and lower soil fertility cause shorter fallows; farmers are forced to return to degraded land in as little as 5-8 years, instead of allowing 20+ years for recovery. Each year, farmland vegetation cover is burnt off and soil loses organic matter. Rain impact on bare soil is heavy and rainwater runs faster along the ground. This increases erosion and risks of flooding, reduces the amount of water absorbed into the ground, lowers water tables, drains aquifers and increases risk of dry season water shortages.

Despite Kono’s overdependence on mining, agricultural productivity is the real bedrock of sustainable economies. Yet deforestation, burning and uncovered soil can result in; losses of over 6 tonnes per hectare of topsoil from erosion each year, reduced soil fertility and reduced productivity.

Long-term funding is scarce; so sustainable land management strategies will depend on people who interact with the land every day - the farmers. Farmers are cash-poor, avoid risk and are wary of change. Even so, if they achieve short -term increases in yields, cash flow and land-tenure-security, farmers are more likely to invest their time, money and effort into Conservation Agriculture (CA). CA makes agricultural intensification, soil recovery and increased yields possible with minimum inputs.

Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES), farmer field schools, government extension services and agricultural banks can all help with transition to CA, can help farmers share tried and tested CA techniques with each other, provide insurance, reduce risk, and assist shock recovery. Kono District’s policy makers can assist transition to CA by introducing CA policies, facilitation, regulations and enforcement.

INTRODUCTION

Soil: Kono District in Eastern Sierra Leone has an area of 564,000 hectares. It sits on the Kono/Koinadugu plateau at about 400m, part of the Guinea Highlands. It comprises mostly high lying plains, rocky hills and narrow wooded valleys. Soilsii are iron-rich clays, acidic, low in organic matter, with low fertility. These mostly include clay loamsiii (equal clay, silt and sand) and sandy claysiv (mostly sand and clay), and some loamsv (mostly silt and sand with 20% clay). Unmanaged soils may be suitable for low-demand arable and tree crops, generally not suitable for cropping on steeper slopes.

Effect of rain on soil: Kono District receives about 220cm of rain per year. During the West African monsoon, rain comes from the Atlantic, travelling north-eastwards to the Plateau. The Guinea side of the highlands are more arid. This might be explained by the degraded state of our “Rivers in the Sky”vi; the cloud-forming rainforests of Kono District, which also affect local temperatures. Kono is part of the Sewa and Moa river basins; receiving water from the northern highlands and draining south into Kenema District. Rain falling on Kono has high erosivityvii (impact energy R factor 7400)viii. High soil acidity, soil compaction, annual burning, deforestation, low soil organic matter (SOM) and clayey soil all make the soil highly erodible. On a 32-degree burned slope it is possible to lose well over 6 tonnes of soil per hectare, every year.

Land use in Kono District: Urbanisation ≈ 1%, mining ≈ 6%, forest ≈ 15% other land uses including agriculture ≈ 78% of land area. Unsustainable land use coupled with social, economic and political policies and practices have led to:

Poverty, lack of sustainable livelihoods, struggling economies, reduction in social security, rural brain-drain and labour-drain, conflicts over land, inequitable allocation of farmland, reduced fallows shortened from 20+ years to 5 years or less
Soil degradation; higher soil erodibility and erosion, lost soil organic matter (SOM) and soil life from burning. Reduced soil aggregation, fertility, soil security and yields
Deforestation; estimated fall from ≈ 34% forest in 1975 to ≈ 15% in 2013 with 15% woodland, and savannisation increase from ≈ 47% savanna to ≈ 64%
Destruction of wildlife habitats, biodiversity, ecosystems and ecosystem services
Microclimate changes; heat island effects, rainfall patterns, wind and storm exposure
Rainwater infiltration reduction; increased runoff speed and flooding, reduced aquifer recharging and increased dry season water shortages
Stewardship vacuum in sustainable land management, soil security, soil restoration at national, district, chiefdom and village level. Complacency and fatalistic attitudes towards land degradation.
Destructive development instead of sustainable development.

[i] July 5, 2017, European Commission Joint Research Centre

[i] Pisoplinthic Plinthosols, with accumulations of iron that hardens irreversibly when exposed to air and sunlight, and Lithic Leptosols, which are shallow soils over hard rock with a bedrock close to the surface, on the interior plateau (Lapworth et al., 2015) In a general sense, soils are light, lateritic, and naturally infertile, with the most fertile soils located along certain river valleys, and in some inland swamps, due to a thick deposit of alluvium (Binns, 1980 in bateman 2017).

[ii] (35% clay, 40% silt, 30% sand)

[iii] (40% clay, 10% silt, 50% sand), (30% clay, 10% silt, 60% sand)

[iv] (20% clay, 40% silt, 40% sand)

[v] (Pearce, 2018),

[vi] (R factor of over 7400 SCJRC 2017)

Fig 1 Kono relief & drainage basins (USGS 2011)

Fig 2 Kono soil types (UNDP 1980)

Land use and causes of degradation

urbanisation

URBANISATION

Within village and town settlement borders, degradation effects on land include almost complete extinction of wildlife, bird and plant life, heat-island effects, soil crusting and compaction, increased rain-runoff, flooding and erosion, denudation of steep lands and construction of buildings there, mudslides, open rubbish dumps, plastic waste, release of highly toxic fumes from burning plastic waste, dust storms, exposed human and animal waste, gutter, stream and river sedimentation and pollution.

It is important to note the scale of land degradation from urbanisation. Human settlements occupy an estimated 6000 hectares of Kono District’s land area i which is about 1%, although they have a much wider impact on surrounding areas.

MINING

When speaking of land degradation in Kono, diamond mining is high on people’s consciousness due to its high visibility.

Alluvial mining is a driver of immigration, low paid cash labour and local micro economies in some chiefdoms, and drives emigration and labour shortages in many chiefdoms. It has negatively and disproportionately affected lives, education and wellbeing. Alluvial mining encourages mineral-resource-dependency at the expense of sustainable development, agriculture, innovation and education. This type of mining drives unsustainable land exploitation including; soil and environmental degradation, increased populations of malarial mosquitos and pollution, leading to greater awareness of the term ‘resource curse’. Alluvial mining is carried out in and adjacent to tributaries and rivers Bafi and Sewa.

Sedimentation and the visible colour of river water provides clues about the type and amount of silt that has flowed into and is being carried by the Bafi, Sewa and Moa rivers. Issues include river damming and diversion, deforestation, river course-changes, river silting and pollution, topsoil removal and burial under less fertile soil, abandoned open pits of stagnant water breeding large populations of disease-carrying mosquitoes, destruction of soil profile, slow vegetative succession. Valuable fertile top soils containing organic matterx (upper 30cm, or deeper in wetlands) and subsoil, are not removed or set asidexi before excavations begin, nor replaced after mining activities cease. Land is not restored by miners.

Open pit Kimberlite mining in Koidu, involves weekly deep rock-detonations and seismic shocks, excavations up to 180 tonnes of rock per hour, rock-crushing and dumping, and tailings ponds. Risks include heavy-metal leaching, air, soil and groundwater pollution.

Gold mining in the Nimini Hills increases the risks of toxic chemical pollution draining into the Sewa river basin and into Kenema District’s watercourses.

If Uranium mining was implemented, it would create extreme risks of highly toxic radioactive dust and arsenic carried by wind affecting very large areas of soil and crops in Kono District and neighbouring regions. This would have irreversible adverse health effects on humans downwind including significant increases in cases of lung cancer, and would affect humans and animals consuming affected crops for generations. Mine tailings contain Th230 with a half-life of 80,000 years, which continues to produce Ra226 for the duration of its half-life. Radium with a half-life of 1,600 years continues to produce Rn222 gas, which can be carried great distances. Another high risk would be seepage of radioactive materials, arsenic and heavy metals poisoning groundwater in surrounding areas over extremely long periods of time.

Monitoring, risk reduction and restoration. In Kono district there are no apparent health, environmental conservation, monitoring, risk management or restoration requirements stipulated when issuing mining licences, and no apparent inspection regime or enforcement by local authorities or by the ministries concerned with lands and mining.

Google Earth satellite imagery was used to estimate the size of visible mining land-usage and land affected by mining at about 6% (33,900ha) of Kono’s total land area (figure 3 below). However, this assessment could not easily identify the huge areas strip-mined by Sierra Leone Selection Trust and National Diamond Mining Company over half a century from the 1930s to the 1980s. Outside of the identified area, mining has the potential to cause further siltation and toxic pollution of water courses, soil and ground water extending south into Kenema District and downwind to surrounding regions and countries.

[i] Measured using Google maps area calculator). However, the impact of residents of settlements extend far beyond their borders,

[ii] https://harvestchoice.org/topics/soil-resources

[iii] See useful article related to soil preservation and stockpiling and shelf life at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/282026801_Topsoil_Stripping_and_Management_for_Mine_Rehabilitation Topsoil Stripping and Management for Mine Rehabilitation. And https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s002540100321 Management of topsoil for geo-environmental reclamation of coal mining areas. Note most alluvial mines are short-lived and could be restored within 1 to 3 years.

mining

Figure 3 Visible mining-affected land, Kono District, Sewa drainage basin (author (2018) using land area mapping on Google)

POLICIES, CORRUPTION AND TIMBER

Poor national policy decisions, corruption and unaccountable exploitation of resources, over many decades, are underlying causes of environmental degradation in Kono District. This allowed the timber and firewood trade to flourish even during government restrictions on logging, trade and export.

Sierra Leone is part of the Upper Guinean Rainforest. Sierra Leone Surveys and Lands Department maps from 1951 (below) already showed reduced and degraded rainforest, large areas of savannah, and the administration’s attempts at conservation (SLSL, 1951)

policy_timber

Kono District vegetation types (SLSL, 1951)

Kono District government conservation planning (SLSL, 1951)

The map below shows the retreat of forest cover in the Upper Guinean Rainforest over a period of 113 years between 1900 and 2013.

Figure 4 Guinea Rainforest 1900 -2013 (USGS)

Based on the author’s visual pixel counts of CILSS satellite surveys (left and below); in 1975 Kono District’s forests covered 34% of land area (of which 60% was degraded), 12% was woodland (widely spaced trees with shrubbery and not much shade), 47% savannah (CILSS 2016).

Figure 5 Kono District land use 1975 (CILSS, 2016)

By 2013, only 15% of Kono District was covered by forest (of which 70% was degraded), 15% was woodland, 64% savannah (CILSS 2016).

Figure 6 Kono District land use 2000 (CILSS, 2016)

Figure 7 Kono District land use 2013 (CILSS, 2016)

Forest
Degraded forest
Woodland
Savannah
Agricultural activity[i] [ii]

[i] Land Use Land Cover And Trends In Sierra Leone West Africa https://eros.usgs.gov/westafrica/land-cover/land-use-land-cover-and-trends-sierra-leone landscapes of west Africa, a window on a changing world, Comité Permanent Inter-états de Lutte contre la Sécheresse dans le Sahel [CILSS], 2016, Landscapes of West Africa—A window on a changing world: Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, CILSS, 219 p. at http://dx.doi.org/10.5066/F7N014QZ

[ii] [Light purple 255, dark and medium purple 135 = 18.6% of 2094], [dark green 120 =5.7%], [light green 1,086, turquoise 249 = 63.7%], [yellow 252 = 12%]

The Sierra Leone government promotes a “pro poor” policy of resource exploitation, however, the beneficiaries of such exploitation are rarely the poor.

Global deforestation trends show the dangers of complacent, private-enterprise-driven policymaking, especially when combined with endemic corruption as in Sierra Leone, and as in Brazil where “90% of timber logging takes place outside the law” (http://florestasilenciosa.ambiental.media/en/a-madeira/ (Silent Forest, 2018) accessed 27 June 2018.

A good example of promotion of unsustainable policies in Sierra Leone is the study; “The Domestic Trade in Timber and Fuelwood Products in Sierra Leone” by Paul Munro and Greg van der Horst of Energy for Opportunity, which concentrated most of its attention on the Freetown Western Area and the Northern Province but ignored the Eastern Province. The study denied Sierra Leone had a deforestation problem, regarded the studies showing Sierra Leone was once heavily forested as unsubstantiated, dismissed evidence provided by vegetative succession environmental science, and used Freetown’s forest reserves as an example to contradict what they called ‘malthusian’ disaster scenarios. Munro and Horst became highly influential in Sierra Leone’s policymaking for forestry and environment; such enterprise driven policies and practises have influenced national attitudes to natural resource exploitation and land use change, including Kono District.

Government policy and practice has reinforced local complacency towards deforestation. Trees were seen by many as exploitable cash or inconvenient obstructions to building and farming. These attitudes continue to be major drivers of cutting of forests in Kono District.

Every year Freetown experiences torrents of fast-moving water, floods and erosion. The public is very aware of the extent of incursions into those steep-land forests, much of which are now denuded due to massive government land sales of protected forests to private buyers, clear cutting and conversion of land for domestic building. In 2017 a large mudslide swept away houses and killed over 1000 people in Freetown. The public is beginning to make the connections between such occurrences and deforestation.

Despite this realisation, the urban and international demand for Kono’s timber, farmers’ chronic cash-poverty and complacency of authorities, all continue to drive logging and deforestation. In 2014, trucks loaded with timber regularly left outer chiefdoms headed for Koidu or other cities, in 2018 residents all over Kono reported daily sightings. On their journeys trucks pass up to six police checkpoints unhindered except for a small bribe to police. Chiefdom authorities do not intervene. On the 27th of June 2018 a presidential press release announced that 13,000 containers worth of timber would be released for export. In all probability these trees had been cut and accumulated throughout the latest export ban

Figure 5 (above and below) Timber trucks in June & July 2018 at police checkpoint and chiefdom HQ, Sandoh, Kono District

agriculture

AGRICULTURE

Over 90% of Kono District’s land cover is used for non-mining purposes. (Fig 3). With the exception of wetlands, the main agricultural method in upland areas of Kono is shifting agriculture involving slashing and burning Farm extension is more widely practised than farm intensification. Ever-increasing demand for land is driven by population rise, by year-on-year reduction of soil fertility, by shifting slash and burn agriculture and by unimproved fallows.

Mechanised farming is minimal in Kono District, so the particular problems experienced in intensive mechanised farming systems are not known to be issues (i.e. soil compaction, destruction of soil structure, creation of below-surface hardpan, fertiliser pollution, pesticide pollution, impacts on the soil’s living organisms, soil salinification and sodification)

The problem of extension: If a minimum 10-year natural-fallow period was followed to allow moderate soil recovery, a smallholder farmer cultivating 2 hectares at a time, would need a total of 12 hectares of arable land, not including plantations. Every 100 farmers would require 1,200 hectares of arable land.

Intensified conservation agriculture (CA) using improved fallows would drastically reduce the amount of land needed by each farmer.

Figure 6 The problem of extensification

The downward spiral of soil destruction and poverty in Kono District using shifting slash and burni agriculture and unimproved fallows

Farmer burns a plot of land. Some ash containing carbon, nitrogen and other nutrients falls onto the soil providing a short-term nutrient-boost to soil. A large amount of carbon and nutrients blows away in wind along with smoke and CO2 and contributes to climate change (15-32 tonnes CO2 emissions per hectare every year are released from agricultural land in sub-Saharan Africa)ii. Fire kills fertility-building soil organisms and microorganisms, decreases soil organic matter (SOM) and destroys soil structure



Fires often spread uncontrolled, burning many square kilometres, killing fruit trees,
palm trees and permanent crops

Once the soil has been stripped of vegetation, heavy rains batter the bare soil and
break up soil structure

During rainfall, some ash nutrients seep into the soil. A large amount of nutrients washes downhill together with topsoil and organic matter, into streams and rivers

Crops extract more nutrients from the soil, nutrients are not replaced (nutrient mining),
yield is low, so farmer moves to another plot and repeats

WITHIN 5-8 YEARS, FARMER RUNS OUT OF LAND AND MUST CHOOSE;

EITHER

Farmer cuts down more forest

Farm expansion increases, deforestation and soil degradation increases, land pressure increases, land competition and community conflicts increase

Farmer returns to the first plot which has not yet recovered

Soil degradation increases from nutrient-mining, shortened fallows, land overuse and erosion

BOTH RESULT IN:

Fall in yields - hunger and malnutrition - cash-poor communities - poverty cycle

[i] Effects of slash-and-burn agriculture and deforestation on climate change P.BernardTinker https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0167880995006516

[ii] Kim, D.-G., Thomas, A. D., Pelster, D., Rosenstock, T. S., and Sanz-Cobena, A. (2016) p4792 Greenhouse gas emissions from natural ecosystems and agricultural lands in sub-Saharan Africa: synthesis of available data and suggestions for further research, Biogeosciences, 13, 4789-4809, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-13-4789-2016.

Figure 7 Patchwork of farms and fallow dissected by a small forest, Kambodu South East Kono 27/6/18 Google

recommendations

RECOMMENDATIONS for localising conservation and environmental restoration in Kono District

“…..we can note the rise of a false or superficial ecology which bolsters complacency and a cheerful recklessness. As often occurs in periods of deep crisis which require bold decisions, we are tempted to think that what is happening is not entirely clear.”

Encyclical letter Laudato si' of Pope Francis 2015

Summary

Confirm and pay close attention to different stakeholders’ priorities and attitudes
Regard farmers as the primary agents of land conservation
Adding organic matter, soil cover, erosion barriers, soil security and implementing the REDD+ agenda must become policy priorities at district, chiefdom and village level
Councils and chiefdoms should take emergency measures now
Conservation agriculture (CA). Partnerships between farmer, district/chiefdom/ section authorities and Farmer Based Organisations
Reforestation programme
Ongoing monitoring, tracking and reporting progress. Progress indicators should include; policy and attitude change; soil erosion levels; soil productivity and fertility; reforestation action; pollution levels; and health records
Ensure mining risk management, reduction and enforcement applying the ‘polluter pays’ principle. Prevent irreversible pollution applying the ‘precautionary principle’.

The combination of soil conservation, and restoration and reforestation will take Kono District closer to; achieving Zero Net Degradation, increased productivity and Sustainable Development Goals SDGincluding; 1 (no poverty,), SDG2 (zero hunger,), SDG3 (health and well-being,), SDG6 (clean water,), SDG8 (decent work and economies,), SDG10 (equality,), SDG11 (sustainable communities,), SDG12 (responsible production and consumption,), SDG13 (climate action,), SDG14 (life below water,), SDG15 (life on land,) and SDG17 (partnerships for the Goals).

Recommendation 1: Confirm and pay close attention to different Stakeholders’ priorities and attitudes in all actions

Farmer and local community priorities include: Seed, food, cash, tools/materials, shelter, loss of labour/knowledge from death/migration, access to land, thickness of bush, livestock, social capital, mobility, medicine (Bateman, 2017), yields to eat and sell, cash for labour, theft, fire, disease, pests, land tenure. Perpetual vulnerability means the need to survive overrides destruction of sources of livelihoods (Bateman, 2017), this coupled with diminishing natural resources creates the ‘tragedy of the commons’. Newly arrived farmers often take less care of land than long-term residents and indigenous farmers.
Loggers priorities: perceive trees as a cheap source of cash to capture and profit from
Truck owners and drivers priorities: take any cargo, make profit, do not feel responsible for what they carry and do not pay heavy penalties (e.g. confiscation of trucks)
Police priorities include: enforcement of any local or District byelaws, however this is undermined by inaction, rent-seeking at checkpoints and police stations, ‘orders from above’ and no heavy legal penalties for corruption.
Chiefs priorities include: trusteeship and allocation of community land, local economy, however many ignore destructive practises and bylaws. Chiefs share the following priorities with councils; peace, security, law and order, public health, land preservation, economic growth, trade, central government policy, sustainable and unsustainable development, taxes.
Development and agricultural banks priorities include: agriculture, business, loans, monthly loan repayments, loan security and assurances.
MAFFS priorities include: agricultural productivity, economic growth, food security, soil security, environmental conservation, deforestation, central government policy.

Recommendation 2: Regard farmers as the primary agents of land conservation.

Externally imposed rigid practices mostly fail; adoption is low and lapses after intervention is complete. Initiatives and praxis by Farmer Based Organisations (FBOs) are more likely to sustain over time and be widely shared and adopted.
Inter-family and inter-community barriers that prevent knowledge and skills sharing and adoption need to be broken down.
Incentives for sharing skills and knowledge need to be ensured.
Incorporate flexibility for farmer adaptation by farmers.

Recommendation 3: Adding organic matter, soil cover and erosion barriers and implementing the REDD+ agenda must become policy priorities at district, chiefdom and village level

Set time-bound specific and enforceable targets for each of these.

Recommendation 4: Councils and chiefdoms should take emergency measures now:

District councils and chiefdoms commit to a Zero Net Degradation policy
District council and individual chiefdoms impose logging ban and vehicle confiscation penalties. Proceeds from confiscated vehicles and their loads to be used for chiefdom transport and to pay for a chiefdom reforestation, monitoring and soil conservation programme. Transboundary enforcement agreements with surrounding chiefdoms, and districts will be necessary, border authorities and the police to prevent smuggling.
Suggested farmer byelaw: Upland farmers should leave 4 metre strips of thick unploughed vegetation strips horizontally along contour lines across farms every 10 or 20 metres and across the bottom of their farms, to catch soil and sediment until they adopt other conservation agriculture methods.

Recommendation 5: Conservation agriculture (CA). Partnerships between farmer/ district/ chiefdom/ section authorities and Farmer Based Organisations should;

Encourage and support farmer adoption of conservation agriculture. Focus on short-term benefits. Agree ‘no fire’ areas to protect CA plots.
Strengthen and capacity-build Farmer Based Organisations. Facilitate praxis on land management options. Integrate Sloping Agricultural Land Technology (SALT) ideas into current upland practices and policies. Introduce Farmer Based Organisation boma arrangements from farm to market.
Improve farmers’ access to market with road maintenance, outreach to buyers, bike associations, Koidu drivers, wholesalers.
Farmer Based Organisations, development banks and local authorities set up shock-recovery measures for farmers.
Once access to market has been improved, encourage upland farmers’ gradual adoption of Sloping Agricultural Land Technology (SALT)i in stages as follows:

Figure 8 Example of SALT soil conservation and fertility restoration (Palmer, 2004) and photo (Tacio, 2011)

Step 1 Farmers mark out contours and practise contour ploughing across their slopes instead of up and down. No additional labour required except to mark out contours.
Step 2 Farmers leave horizontal unploughed strips of vegetation across the contours of the hill every 2 to 5 meters depending on slope. This slows water and reduces erosion. No additional labour required.
Step 3 Farmer plants double rows of nitrogen-fixing plants across contours (eg legumes). These are pruned and mulched. Mulching adds fertility to soil, suppresses weeds, encourages insect predators and controls insect pests, slows water runoff and reduces erosion, improves rain-infiltration, encourages soil life and improves soil structure. Some nitrogen-fixing plants provide cash income or fodder. Farmers may raise livestock, grow fodder, make compost and manure, and regularly add to soil. Planting and periodic pruning of nitrogen-fixing-plants and livestock management require additional labour.
Step 4 Crop rotations, mixed crops, permanent crops and tree crops. If farmer has assurances of security of tenure and gets short-term benefits in yield and cash s/he may decide to invest more time and labour into plots. This includes slope-top tree-planting (see Fig 11) and step 5 below. As a result of improved soil fertility, farmer may reduce shifting, reduce amount of land in fallow and increase productivity per hectare.
Step 5 Nitrogen fixing hedgerows are planted on the double rows creating permanent barriers against soil erosion, adding fertility and over time generating terraces. Live fences are planted to remove the need for yearly pest fence-building, fast-growing trees for firewood may be planted at borders. Requires additional labour.xvii

Recommendation 6: Reforestation programme

Medium and long term programme of reforestation using mixed indigenous and fast- growing species, financed from development funds and local revenues. This will improve microclimates, rain infiltration, dry season water availability by replenishing aquifers. This is especially important in Kono’s northern highlands which feed Sewa and Moa water basins.
Transboundary inter-district and inter-chiefdom reforestation and anti- trafficking agreements will be necessary.

Recommendation 7: Urgently begin a programme of monitoring, tracking and reporting of environmental status, conservation and environmental restoration

•Progress indicators should include; policy and attitude change; soil erosion levels; soil productivity and fertility; reforestation action; pollution levels; and health records.

Recommendation 8: Ensure rigorous local mining pollution risk management, reduction and enforcement applying the ‘polluter pays’ principle. Prevent irreversible pollution applying the ‘precautionary principle’

Polluter or potential polluter pays for independent third-party implementation of this.
Third party is appointed by ACC or international mining watchdog.

"There is no animal on the earth, nor any bird that wings its flight, but is a community like you.” Qur’an 6: 38

“The creation of the heavens and earth is greater than the creation of mankind, but most of the people do not know.” Qur’an 40: 57

SUGGESTED MONITORING INDICATORS

Policy adoption/Social/community awareness, discourse, praxis, bylaws, enforcement
Soil erosion levels
Soil productivity and fertility
Reforestation action
Pollution levels
Biodiversity levels

Monitoring Indicator 1: Policy adoption/Social/community awareness, discourse, praxis, bylaws, enforcement

Number of chiefdoms and councillors who have adopted Zero Net Degradation Policy, emergency bylaws, and demonstrate zero tolerance enforcement
Frequency and attendance of section-level and village level conservation praxis meetings
Capacity of Farmer Based Organisations by number of conservation boma arrangements per section, and activities
Percentage who have adopted any SALT step, intra/inter community diffusion
Individual farmers' cost benefit analysis of conservation agriculture

Monitoring Indicator 2: Soil erosion levels

Amount of suspended silt, clay and organic matter in Bafi, Sewa and Moa rivers (especially after rain)
Visual erosion indicators:
Farmers own erosion identifiers
Amount and size of, rills and gullies on farm and fallow land
Moderate (and better) class 3 erosion less than 5-10t/ha: Slight to moderate crusting, wash marks, discontinuous rills every 20-50m, splash pedestals and exposed tree roots mark level of former surface, soil mounds protected by vegetation, all to depths of 5-10 mm <10%, 30-70% plant cover, slight pollution downstream.
Slight Class 2 erosion slight crusting, localised wash marks, rills every 50- 100m, splash pedestals (1-5mm high), stones or exposed tree roots protect underlying soil <10%, 30-70% plant cover.
(Morgan 2005 p. 88)
Mean annual soil loss per chiefdom if Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation 2 software (RUSLE2) templates for Sierra Leone soil types and erosivity available

Monitoring Indicator 3: Soil productivity and fertility

Soil chemical properties including levels of Organic Carbon, total Nitrogen, pH, exchangeable cations, extractable Phosphorus
Organic carbon contentxviii, particulate organic matter, mineralisable carbon microbial biomass, soil carbohydrates and enzymesxix
Soil bulk density less than 1.5 g/cm3, infiltration, aggregates: for soil structure, porosity and fitness for root growth
Soil life – visual count per unit volume of soil, Microscopic visual counts per unit volume of soil
Yield by crop type, per hectare
Above ground biodiversity by farmer sightings

Monitoring Indicator 4: Reforestation action

Number and species of trees nursed to 3m per chiefdom section
Number and species of trees planted and maintained on sloping ground (and flat) >3m >6m >10m per chiefdom section
Mid and end of dry season water table levels

Monitoring Indicator 5: Pollution levels

Levels of radiation, heavy metals and chemicals in ground water, rivers and soil around mining dumps in Kono District, in surrounding regions and downstream in Kenema District

Monitoring Indicator 6: Biodiversity levels

Number of species visual sightings per time period per geographical region

References

Bateman, J. P. (2017). Rural Livelihoods in Sierra Leone: Longitudinal Insights from Panguma and Kayima (Thesis, Doctor of Philosophy). University of Otago. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/10523/7558

Comité Permanent Inter-états de Lutte contre la Sécheresse dans le Sahel [CILSS], 2016, Landscapes of West Africa—A window on a changing world: Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, CILSS, 219 p. at http://dx.doi.org/10.5066/F7N014QZ

Danielson, J.J., and Gesch, D.B., 2011, Global multi-resolution terrain elevation data 2010(GMTED2010), U.S. Geological Survey. https://eros.usgs.gov/westafrica/ecoregions- and-topography/ecoregions-and-topography-sierra-leone accessed 1 July 2018

European Commission Joint Research Centre (July 5, 2017) https://phys.org/news/2017-07- global-erosivity-differences-climatic-regions.html accessed 2 July 2018

Morgan, R.P.C. (2005) p. 88 Soil Erosion and Conservation. 3rd edition. Oxford, Blackwell.

Munro, Paul & van der Horst, Greg. (2012). The Domestic Trade in Timber and Fuelwood Products in Sierra Leone: Current Dynamics and Issues

Palmer J (2004) How to Farm Your Hilly Land Without Losing Your Soil: Sloping Agriculture Land Technology Farming System. Pub Asian Rural Life Development Foundation,

https://www.scribd.com/doc/20585238/Sloping-Agricultural-Land-Technology-SALT-Farming-

System accessed 30 June 2018

Sahr O Fasuluku using https://www.daftlogic.com/projects-google-maps-area-calculator- tool.htm google maps area calculator

Sierra Leone Surveys and Lands Dept (1951) available at European Digital Archive on Soil Maps (EuDASM) http://esdac.jrc.ec.europa.eu accessed 2 July 2018

Silent Forest (undated) available at http://florestasilenciosa.ambiental.media/en/a-madeira/ accessed 27 june 2018

UNDP 1980 Land Systems of Sierra Leone, (map) SIL/73/002 FAO UNDP-MANR

USGS (undated) available at (https://eros.usgs.gov/westafrica/land-cover/deforestation- upper-guinean-forest accessed 26 June 2018

Endnotes

i SDG8 decent work and economic growth, SDG9 innovation and infrastructure, SDG11 sustainable communities, SDG12 responsible production and consumption, SDG13 climate action, SDG14 life below water, SDG15 life on land, SDG17 partnerships for the goals, SDG1 poverty, and SDG2 hunger.

ii Pisoplinthic Plinthosols, with accumulations of iron that hardens irreversibly when exposed to air and sunlight, and Lithic Leptosols, which are shallow soils over hard rock with a bedrock close to the surface, on the interior plateau (Lapworth et al., 2015) In a general sense, soils are light, lateritic, and naturally infertile, with the most fertile soils located along certain river valleys, and in some inland swamps, due to a thick deposit of alluvium (Binns, 1980 in bateman 2017).

iii (35% clay, 40% silt, 30% sand)

iv (40% clay, 10% silt, 50% sand), (30% clay, 10% silt, 60% sand)

v (20% clay, 40% silt, 40% sand)

vi (Pearce, 2018),

vii (R factor of over 7400 SCJRC 2017)

viii July 5, 2017, European Commission Joint Research Centre

ix Measured using Google maps area calculator,

x https://harvestchoice.org/topics/soil-resources

xi See useful article related to soil preservation and stockpiling and shelf life at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/282026801_Topsoil_Stripping_and_Management_f or_Mine_Rehabilitation Topsoil Stripping and Management for Mine Rehabilitation. And https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s002540100321 Management of topsoil for geo- environmental reclamation of coal mining areas. Note most alluvial mines are short-lived and could be restored within 1 to 3 years.

xii Land Use Land Cover And Trends In Sierra Leone West Africa https://eros.usgs.gov/westafrica/land-cover/land-use-land-cover-and-trends-sierra-leone landscapes of west Africa, a window on a changing world, Comité Permanent Inter-états de Lutte contre la Sécheresse dans le Sahel [CILSS], 2016, Landscapes of West Africa—A

window on a changing world: Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, CILSS, 219 p. at http://dx.doi.org/10.5066/F7N014QZ

xiii [Light purple 255, dark and medium purple 135 = 18.6% of 2094], [dark green 120 =5.7%], [light green 1,086, turquoise 249 = 63.7%], [yellow 252 = 12%]

xiv Effects of slash-and-burn agriculture and deforestation on climate change P.BernardTinker https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0167880995006516

xv Kim, D.-G., Thomas, A. D., Pelster, D., Rosenstock, T. S., and Sanz-Cobena, A. (2016) p4792 Greenhouse gas emissions from natural ecosystems and agricultural lands in sub- Saharan Africa: synthesis of available data and suggestions for further research, Biogeosciences, 13, 4789-4809, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-13-4789-2016.

xvi (Palmer, 2004)

xvii (adapted from Palmer, 2004)

xviii Targets for Organic Carbon content: loams 1.5- 2%, clay loams 1.8-2.5%, sandy clays 2- 2.6%, sandy clay loams 1.7-2.3% (58% of organic matter exists as carbon).

xix (Hartemink, 2016)

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S O Fasuluku