Project Detail

Upscaling of Mobondah Community Conservation Project.

The Mobondah Community Conservation Project (MCCP) is a scaling up of the previous Project that was supported by GEF Small Grants Programme in 2017. This project will develop an eco-tourism component by identifying appealing activities for tourists and by building capacity of the inhabitants and by developing oyster farming to provide needed livelihoods alternatives that will encourage the communities to continue implementing habitat restoration, bio-monitoring and the education programme. With adequate capacity building, the people can conduct their own touristic activities (e.g. training local people to conduct cultural tours, botanical trails, traditional dances, bird watching, forest hikes, canoe trips in the mangroves, etc.) that attract tourists to the project area. This project will improve the accessibility of the site and develop a small infrastructure that can accommodate the first guests.The strategic location of the project area and its richness in biodiversity provides a perfect retreat for tourists. The ecotourism could generate sustainable incomes for the communities and will help to promote conservation.

The previous Mobondah Community Conservation project targeted five communities neighboring two intact secondary forests surrounded by mangroves that provide a home for a number of keystone wildlife species, including the critically endangered western chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes verus) and endangered Timneh parrot (Psittacus timneh). With support from GEF SGP, this project has progressed very well with the communities signing MoUs that would warrant their commitment to the project. Since then, Tacugama Community Outreach Programme (TCOP) team organized the farmers into groups and trained them on sustainable agriculture with the implementation of small In Valley Swamp (IVS) rice farms. Additionally, TCOP team trained 10 local people as bio-monitoring technicians and they now patrol the forest and collect human activity/wildlife data. The information recorded by the local technicians helped to identify two first wildlife corridors. Regarding the reforestation component, the 5 communities have grown almost 20,000 economic trees in the wildlife corridors in June-July 2018. The sensitization campaigns, educational workshops and environmental education sessions were conducted monthly and a football tournament was organized to bring the youth together and promote the conservation spirit within this region. Furthermore, TCOP team replicated the biodiversity survey carried out in 2016 with camera traps that proved that the group of 8 chimpanzees sighted in 2016 was still in the area in 2018; and identified each individual chimpanzee, which were then given names in a ceremony attended by all the local authorities of Moyamba District, locally based governmental institutions and NGO?s.
To date, the overall results indicate that there is a healthy population of chimpanzees that move from forest to forest, that a breeding population of manatees inhabit an area located near Sorbengi, and there is one of the largest populations of Timneh parrots (Psittacus timneh) ever recorded (as stated by a representative of the World Parrot Trust). The community is fully engaged, and the project has designated them as environmental ambassadors and a model for other communities. TCOP team has also identified the potential for oyster farming as a new livelihood that would help to empower the women of the community.

Project Snapshot

Grantee:

Sierra Leone Chimpanzee Rehabilitation Programme

Country:

Sierra Leone

Area Of Work:

Biodiversity

Operational Phase:

OP6 -Y4 (Jul 18 - Jun 19)

Grant Amount:

US$ 30,000.00

Co-Financing Cash:

US$ 45,290.00

Co-Financing in-Kind:

US$ 7,000.00

Project Number:

SLE/SGP/OP6/Y4/STAR/BD/29/08/2018/43

Start Date:

10/2018

End Date:

9/2019

Status:

Satisfactorily Completed

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Project Characteristics and Results

Notable Community Participation

Adults and youths are actively involved in the project through consultation and participative decision making workshops, participation during research activities, the sustainable livelihood implementation and the corridor expansion. Before designing the activities, TCOP team conducts consultative sessions with the communities to agree on the plan. During the activities, at least one community member is asked to accompany the TCOP team to ensure that transparency is achieved. We intend to collate and analyze the data gathered and present it to the community during meetings and workshops.

Significant Participation of Indigenous Peoples

All the project activities involve indigenous people. The indigenous communities are involved in the initial consultative meetings, the planning of the project and the delivery of the activities. We believe that communication in local, native language is an effective strategy for engaging community members, especially those where little English is spoken. Many TCOP staff are able to speak a number of native local languages. Additionally, to avoid excluding illiterate indigenous people, digital data collection via symbols and icons is used.

Emphasis on Sustainable Livelihoods

Concerning livelihoods, the project intends to train 25 women on sustainable oyster farming, train the community members on eco-tourism basic practices, and continue building capacity on sustainable agriculture. In the short term, IVS rice farming has been identified as the primary alternative livelihood that could bring food security and generate income. IVS farming will be combined with vegetable gardening and groundnut planting due to the low nutritional value of this crop. The long term goal is to achieve sustainability through ecotourism. Ecotourism will offer a viable combination of ecological and cultural protection, increase local awareness of the value of preserving the natural and cultural environments, and aid in economic development.

Inovative Financial Mechanisms

Data collection and analysis will be managed using Cybertracker application, an easy-to-use digital survey that can be created for specific projects. This application has been designed to be used by both literate and not literate people through the use of a language of icons. The bio-monitoring technicians are already trained and skilled to use this software and the project officers are able to download and analyze the data. The results will be input into the larger project database. For activities that require smaller and more unique information, paper templates will be used. Field training will be held regularly to ensure quality data are gathered. Attendance sheets will be recorded during every community meeting, visit, consultation and/or workshop. Since 2017, the programmes impacts have been captured and recorded in a TCOP database. Knowledge management will occur by incorporating monitoring data from all activities into this database. However, this project will have its own section for managing knowledge and results. Progress will be reported through the TCOP monthly reports and specific reports will be compiled for GEF as required. TCOP has specialist personnel in charge of our data management system and it is overseen by the Conservation Manager.

Capacity - Building Component

TCOP is delivered by a team of 5 qualified local officers that have developed the required skills throughout previous years. They all are excellent executors and are experienced, disciplined and passionate about environmental issues and community development. They have a deep knowledge of wildlife protection and nature conservation, and they have the assistance of MAFFS technical advisors, external consultants and specialist groups (e.g. World Parrot Trust and TRY oyster farming) when required. MCCP improves the officer?s skills and the effectiveness of the project by introducing new components and providing training. During 2017, the officers were trained on Cybertracker software data collection, data downloading and elementary data analysis. In addition, 10 indigenous people were trained on bio-monitoring techniques and 118 local farmers were taught IVS rice farming best practices. We propose to further improve the officer?s skills on data analysis and to train them on Cybertracker application design. Moreover, we would like to promote the TCOP Coordinator and to train him as the MCCP Project Manager based on his brilliant performance in 2017.

Policy Impact

The educational component of this project aims to create awareness of environmental issues such as illegal logging and hunting, capturing, killing and selling wildlife species such as the western chimpanzee. Through the signed MoU?s the communities agreed to protect and rehabilitate their community forest. To date, they have adopted and implemented bylaws at a local level, to regulate the forest activity and to reprimand breaches of the MoU. Paramount Chiefs play an important role in communities and have the ability to create effective bylaws and advocate for development projects. The bio-monitoring technicians are responsible for patrolling the forests and reporting illegal activity to the local authorities, who will judge each case according to the agreements. This MoU is effective as shown in 2017 when one resident of Mobondah axis was fined 200,000 Leones for logging in the forest.

Gender Focus

The objectives of this project do not discriminate against gender but promotes female empowerment in a male dominant society by encouraging the active involvement of women in many project activities, such as IVS rice farming, oyster farming, vegetable gardening and reforestation. TCOP?s workshops always involve the women representative and recognize her authority in the land. TCOP encourages women to be present during general community meetings and emphasizes to community mobilizers and leaders that women should be present. In order not to discriminate against illiteracy, the project has implemented a data collection system that can be used by community members that are eager to work but can?t write or read. Oftentimes, 16 community members that have not had opportunities to study have the greatest knowledge of wildlife. This data collection system and methodology allows us to provide opportunities to community members with these characteristics so they can utilize their valuable skills.

Promoting Public Awareness of Global Environment

The project will provide GEF SGP with all the required progress reports and is part of a wider network of conservation institutions, such as PASA, in which achievements will be shared. With approval from GEF SGP, progress reports will be shared with stakeholders and other conservation institutions, using a standardized template that clearly documents progress towards milestones and achievements. Tacugama Community Outreach Programme also regularly shares information via local radio and TV broadcasts, monthly reports to over 70 stakeholders, social media networks with 13000 followers, website updates and newsletters to over 4000 subscribers. These media outlets will ensure that GEF SGP-UNDP is recognized as a key facilitator during every stage of the project. The proposed project is fitting within the wider project activities managed by the TCOP and has the ability to be replicated in other community clusters where we work. This the most developed project of Tacugama Community Outreach Programme and it can serve as a model for other communities. This project will be shared as a case study for community-based forestry and wildlife management with government authorities and officials. The government of Sierra Leone is suggesting that a community-based forestry and wildlife management approach needs to be tried and tested, so this project can serve as an in-country case study to be replicated by other conservation institutions.

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Indicators

Biophysical

Number of globally significant species protected by project 8

Biophysical

Hectares of globally significant biodiversity area protected or sustainably managed by project 1440

Empowerment

Number of CBOs / NGOs formed or registered through the SGP project 1

Empowerment

Number of indigenous people participated/involved in SGP project 200

Livehood

Number of individuals (gender diaggregated) who have benefited* from SGP project 500

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