Project Detail

Innovative land use mapping and reforestation of encroached water catchment area of the Guma Dam through Community-led Environmental Stewardship.

The project is titled ?Promotion of Community-led Environmental Stewardship for the Sustainable Protection the Guma Water Catchment Area and Its Biodiversity? . The overall objective of the project is to empower and promote the participation of community people to collectively work for the protection of the Guma Catchment Area and its biodiversity. In doing so, the project will address the problem of rampant deforestation around the Guma Water Catchment Area to protect biodiversity and to promote the water regeneration and retention capacity of the Guma Valley Dam situated at the Guma Water Catchment Area. The activities include: 1. Mapping out of deforested areas 2. Planting of trees 3. Training of Environment Youth Corps 4. Mobilization and Harmonization of coordination mechanism between relevant stakeholders that include the Guma Valley Water Company, Ministry of Lands, Ministry of the Environment, Freetown City Council, National Protected Area Authority, Environmental Protection Agency, and local stakeholders of communities around the Guma Dam

Project Snapshot

Grantee:

Youth Action for Relentless Development Organization

Country:

Sierra Leone

Area Of Work:

Land Degradation

Operational Phase:

OP7 - Y1 (Jul 20-Jun 21)

Grant Amount:

US$ 20,000.00

Co-Financing Cash:

Co-Financing in-Kind:

US$ 20,000.00

Project Number:

SLE/SGP/OP7/Y1/CORE/LD/17/12/2020/3

Start Date:

1/2021

End Date:

12/2021

Status:

Satisfactorily Completed

Project Characteristics and Results

Gender Focus

Both men and women have equal say in the project. This is because the problem the project is trying address, in fact women more than men. Whenever, there is a natural disaster like landslide or there is a cholera outbreak due to poor water snatiation, or when there is water shortage, women are the most affected in all of these instances. Therefore, the project will develop the following strategies: 1- Equal access to and utilization of services. ... 2- Women and men are equally involved in decision making. ... 3- Equal treatment is integrated into steering processes. Same treatment will be given to people with disability as they are equally affected by the problems the project is trying to solve. So, their voice matter too

Emphasis on Sustainable Livelihoods

In the project area, the most predominant socio-economic livelihood is Quarrying. Around hill top communities like Mambo, Sussex, Mile 13 etc. one could see that a large number of men, women and their children are ceremoniously engaged in breaking large stone/digging to level the mountain slope for construction purposes. This activity is both hazardous to their health and that of the environment too. However, the project will incorporate and train them on nursery management as an alternative source of livelihood. It is hoped that many will start going flowers, shrubs and trees for sale in the long term.

Inovative Financial Mechanisms

Knowledge management is about how to systematically develop and share knowledge throughout the organization. The project involves having a framework for knowledge management in the organization and embedding that framework into project management processes and methodology. Through a well-established channel of the bottom-top approach, knowledge will be harvested from all actors in the project and stored well. For example, the project will ensure all the numbers of the project team members are share among project stakeholders and vice versa. Furthermore, a central line of communication will be established as well, so any one can directly call or email their concern, question, suggestion or recommendation

Promoting Public Awareness of Global Environment

The communication approaches the project will adopt to promote public awareness are public awareness rally and radio discussion program. The public awareness rally will target the residents of the project area whereas the radio discussion program can go beyond the boundaries of the project area. Lessons learnt, success stories etc will be documented both clerically (written) and electronically (visual) which will be shared to all relevant stakeholders and partners in the project. The documentation can build a foundation for replication and up scaling the project in the future

Policy Impact

The project will focused on developing strategies to localize two policies through the adaptation and enactment of local bye laws to influence: (1) the 2010 National Water and Sanitation Policy that aims to promote management of water conservation, and quality standards of water resources. (2) the 2005 Policy that criminalize the illegal acquisition of state land, that include the forest reserve at the Guma Catchment Area

Significant Participation of Indigenous Peoples

The project will involve the local knowledge of indigenous people because YARDOSL believe they have an excellent understanding of the soil conditions and tree varieties within their locality. The project will also utilize the use of the Krio language since it is predominantly spoken in the project locality to ensure better learning, knowledge transfer and communication outcome

Notable Community Participation

YARDOSL have had previous meetings with the authorities in charge of the Guma Dam, which is the Guma Valley Water Company and because the Guma Catchment fall under the Freetown Forest Reserve, the National Protected Area Authority were also duly engage in the planning of the project proposal. Furthermore, community stakeholders like the councilors and a few women leaders were consulted as well. Since, YARDOSL work with youth at the center of its development initiatives, a few youth groups were consulted. Therefore, the project is a collection of all stakeholders? input and it reflects the need of the community. In the implementation phase, the community stakeholders will be actively involved as they are pivotal in the reforestation process and also on the development of local bye laws to combat forest encroachment and deforestation.

Capacity - Building Component

YARDOSL is a well-structured organization with vibrant internal systems that involve policies like safe guarding, anti-fraud, human resource management etc. however, based on the report of the recent internal capacity assessment, the organization is highly in need of capacity building in the area of fund raising. The strengths of the organization include: expertise in financial and contract management, programmatic development, implementation and monitoring etc. Nonetheless, as stated above, YARDOSL has a weakness in the area of fund raising. The organization has identified a strategy to improve on this weakness by paying for the executive director to pursue an online course on fund raising from the Kings College, since it can not be able to hire a fund-raising expert at the moment

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Indicators

Biophysical

Hectares of globally significant biodiversity area protected or sustainably managed by project 50

Empowerment

Number of CBOs / NGOs participated / involved in SGP project 4

Livehood

Total monetary value (US dollars) of ecosystem goods sustainably produced and providing benefit to project participants and/or community as a whole (in the biodiversity, international waters, and land degradation focal areas as appropriate) 50

Livehood

Number of individuals (gender diaggregated) who have benefited* from SGP project 150

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