With November’s UN Climate Conference COP30 set to be held in the Brazilian Amazon, 2025 will see the world’s tropical forests put firmly in the spotlight. These fragile ecosystems, rich in biodiversity but facing huge pressures, are vital in our fight against the nature and climate emergency. To celebrate this year’s International Day of Forests, we go behind the scenes of rainforest conservation to meet some of the incredible people at the forefront of protecting the internationally important Gola Rainforest in West Africa. Join Nick Williams, Flyway Conservation Outreach Officer at the RSPB, to find out more.
People power When we think about conservation it is all too easy to focus on the numbers. Whether it’s the rate at which a species’ population is recovering or declining, the scale of habitat loss or the amount of funding needed to help us fight back; we can quickly become bogged down in statistics.
However, at the heart of all conservation work you will not find numbers. You will find people. You will find dedicated local communities and passionate individuals fighting to protect the nature around them. Nowhere is this more clearly seen than in the conservation of the world’s tropical forests.
So to mark this year’s International Day of Forests, we are celebrating some of the hundreds of people who are the forefront of protecting the Gola Rainforests – a biodiversity hotspot where the RSPB has been working closely with local partners for over 30 years. Together these people show that there are so many ways to protect a forest. From researchers studying the forest and how best to conserve it, to farmers exploring sustainable practices, NGO staff developing alternative livelihood schemes, and rangers on patrol looking for signs of illegal activity. It is the passion and dedication of these individuals, as well as countless more people like them, that makes conservation possible. So let’s listen to their stories.
Gola’s forests are home to a variety of endangered mammals including pangolins as well as over 320 species of birds including the White-throated Bee-eater. Credits: Ryan Wilkie and David Monticelli.
Guarding the forests – Hawa Kaifa
“Each time I go for patrol, I come back and my body feels free, I am able to do things on my own”.
The Greater Gola Landscape, a vast 350,000 ha expanse of tropical forests, straddles the border between Sierra Leone and Liberia and is home to a wealth of wildlife. From endangered mammals like Pygmy Hippo, pangolins and Western Chimpanzees, to more than 320 species of birds including the enigmatic White-necked Picathartes.
Patrolling Gola’s protected areas are teams of rangers as well as Community Ecoguards - volunteers from the local area who are paid a stipend to support their vital work surveying the forest for signs of illegal activity and gathering data on its wildlife.
In the north-east part of the Gola landscape lies Liberia'a Gbarlo Proposed Protected Area where Community Ecoguard Hawa Kaifa and her colleagues patrol the forest alongside government rangers.
“I became an ecoguard in 2022. My community selected me to go for the training and I was successful in the training. Every month I go on patrol and collect data, then I will send that information to the office”.
Hawa Kaifa, Community Ecoguard for the Gbarlo Proposed Protected Area. Credit: Nick Williams/RSPB (rspb-images.com).
“Any observation we make we record on the SMART mobile [system].” SMART – or Spatial Monitoring And Reporting Tool – is a smartphone-based system that allows rangers and ecoguards to record observations gathered while on patrol. These observations can include sightings and signs of wildlife as well as human activities in the forest. “For example, those that go hunting in the forest often cut trees [to clear paths] – so we can collect data on that” explains Hawa. These important observations are then entered into the SMART system before results are analysed by specially-trained staff and reports created to help inform future patrol planning and other conservation activities.
“I’m happy to be an ecoguard” says Hawa. “The reason is since I left school I was sitting down, I was not working, then the community selected me … there is a big difference in how my condition was looking then and how it is now.”
Hawa demonstrating the smartphone-based monitoring tool SMART alongside Rolland Warner, Biomonitoring Officer at the Society for the Conservation of Nature of Liberia. Credit: Nick Williams/RSPB (rspb-images.com).
Building a picture – Mohamed Abdulai Feika
“I love being in the forest – no noise, you only hear the sounds of nature.”
Feika is very clear on what motivates his work as a scientific researcher; “I don’t like sitting in the office, I like being in the field”.
It is out in the field, below the thick forest canopy of the Gola Rainforest National Park in Sierra Leone, that Feika can develop both his botanical and ornithological knowledge the fastest. By seeing species that are new to him, observing their behaviour, learning their calls and distinctive markings, he is building on lessons that began when he was very young.
Recalling childhood trips into the forest with his uncle, Feika says: “I was a bit scared because I heard sounds that I’d never heard before. I was asking my uncle ‘what’s that? What’s that? That could be a bad thing, maybe it’s going to harm us’ and he said ‘relax boy, they are part of the nature that you are enjoying’”.
Mohamed Feika - whose favourite bird species is the Narina Trogon because, as he explains, its call sounds like someone saying ‘Feika, Feika, Feika’. Credit: Nick Williams.
Now a Research Technician with Gola Rainforest Conservation, Feika’s wide and varied knowledge stands him in good stead.
“I do a lot - helping to collect, input and clean data. Very recently we did carbon stock enhancement surveys and I was also involved with bird point counting and I am now working on tree index surveying in the cocoa farms.”
In November, I was lucky enough to meet Feika just before he set off on another data-gathering expedition deep into the national park’s interior. I was filming an interview with him on the edge of forest when he suddenly stopped mid-answer and said, “can you hear the sound of that one?” Not wanting to look stupid I nodded, though in reality for me the distant bird call had been barely audible at all. “That was a Yellow-casqued Hornbill” said Feika, a smile of infectious enthusiasm on his face.
Feika’s work, and the work of all the researchers studying the species and habitats of the Greater Gola Landscape, is absolutely vital in informing future conservation measures. Protecting Gola’s many and varied creatures is at the heart of what drives him.
“I only hope we will keep preserving what we have. For them to be there forever.”
Feika demonstrating tree survey techniques used to gather important data about the health of the Gola Rainforest National Park in Sierra Leone. Credit: Nick Williams/RSPB (rspb-images.com).
Financing change – Yuconjay Noyu Barchue
Across Sierra Leone and Liberia rates of multidimensional poverty are high and there can be great pressure on communities and individuals to unsustainably exploit their forests’ natural resources to help meet everyday needs. The challenge is made worse where affordable financial support options, like loans, have been lacking in the past. That is why Village Savings & Loans Associations – or VLSAs – are so important in protecting Gola’s forests.
“A Village Savings & Loans scheme is a form of community-based microfinance” explains Yuconjay Barchue, Loans Officer at the Society for the Conservation of Nature of Liberia.
“My responsibilities as a Loans Officer include working with communities to build their capacities, understand the differences between ‘savings’, ‘credit’ and ‘loans’ and how to best manage their money.”
Yuconjay with the all-important deposits box at the headquarters of a Village Savings & Loans Association in Lofa County, Liberia. Credit: Nick Williams/RSPB (rspb-images.com).
Community engagement is central to Yuconjay’s work right from the start of each new project. “We meet with the stakeholders within the community because you don’t go into communities and just start to implement – the stakeholders need to be aware that this is what you’re doing – meet with the community and deliver your message, then you can start the ball rolling.”
“With traditional savings you have [interest rates of] 20% or 25% - when will you pay that 25%? It’s a huge loan. It’s a challenge for you […] So with the Village Savings & Loans scheme you have a lower rate that the members will be able to afford and be happy, motivated and encouraged to save their money.”
Yuconjay is particularly inspired by the story of Kuba, a woman from Gbarpolou County, who was reluctant to engage with the Savings & Loans scheme because she was a single mother struggling financially and unable to regularly save. However, she had an idea that farming beans could help to fix nutrients within the soil of her farm that had become degraded in recent years. Her community’s VSLA group were able to lend money to her to begin this new venture and the benefits were quickly realised.
When Yuconjay returned to her community eight months later for a monitoring visit, Kuba had added other crops to her farm and was able to save 12,000 Liberian Dollars per month, where saving 800 had been a challenge initially, as well as guide other women with new business ventures.
“Her story really motivated me and it also motivated the community and it is still motivating other women within her community. From their peers, from the stories of their friends they can be determined.”
Yuconjay together with the management committee of the Sebehill Village Savings & Loans Association in Lofa County, Liberia. Credit: Nick Williams/RSPB (rspb-images.com).
Yuconjay is currently working on a partnership project alongside the RSPB to establish new Village Savings & Loans groups in Lofa County, in northern Liberia. You can find out more about this important work and other areas of the project in our recent blog here.
Finding a sweet spot – Mariama Tarawally
The importance of alternative, sustainable sources of income is particularly important for the Gola Landscape’s many cocoa farmers. Though forest-friendly, shade-grown cocoa is an important source of revenue for many people and communities, cocoa has a growing season and after the harvest it can be difficult for farmers to make ends meet, particularly as the global price of cocoa can also fluctuate.
“It was so difficult to find money” says cocoa farmer Mariam Tarawally, describing the time outside the cocoa harvest. “When we are waiting for the next crop season we will do some small farming work where we can get money.”
Mariama is one of more than 100 farmers taking part in the ‘Cocoa’s Sweet Spot’ project. Credit: Nick Williams/RSPB (rspb-images.com).
In the Malema and Gaura chiefdoms of eastern Sierra Leone, the RSPB is working with local not-for-profit company Gola Rainforest Conservation and 128 participating farmers, including Mariama, on a project to trial new combinations of crops that can be grown alongside cocoa including pineapple, kola nuts, coffee and many more. This ‘mixed cropping’ can help create more sustainable incomes for farmers and so reduce pressure on forest resources. The goal of the project is to find the ‘sweet spot’ that delivers improved yields for a variety of different crops grown on cocoa farms of various ages and conditions. The project also includes work on crop and soil management, pest and disease control, and identification of indigenous tree species that are particularly helpful to grow on farms and in community forests.
For Mariama, the opportunities provided by that additional income are clear; “the money will be beneficial to us, we will put it in savings for our children’s welfare. I would invest in trading to get money for my children’s schooling.”
Another challenge Mariama is keenly aware of is the need for help in ‘brushing the farm’ to clear it of excess vegetation. As she explains “cocoa needs air and water so that it can flourish, so that it will grow well and bear enough fruit to sell”.
Until now this has usually meant paying for additional workers to help her but this new project, funded by Jersey Overseas Aid, is helping to change that. By working with 640 vulnerable members of these communities, partnerships are built between these individuals and the participating farmers. The vulnerable groups include people who may not own land or would struggle to maintain farms due to their age or state of health. Groups of five vulnerable people are paired with one farmer and they work together to cultivate crops, sharing resources and space on the farm with any additional produce being distributed between them, as Mariama explains:
“I have taken them on like my own sisters. If there is any benefit from it we will share it, if they have any benefit they will also share with me.”
Mariama Tarawally. Credit: Nick Williams/RSPB (rspb-images.com).
Welcoming visitors – Mustapha Songe
Like the majority of those safeguarding Gola’s protected areas, Mustapha Songe comes from the forest edge. His village, Lalehun, is one of the 122 communities found in the 4km buffer zone that surrounds the Gola Rainforest National Park in Sierra Leone.
As a tour guide and camp manager for Gola Rainforest Conservation, Songe is acutely aware of the importance of keeping the forest well-protected. His favourite species in the park, the White-necked Picathartes, exemplifies this with its dependence on undisturbed areas where it can nest safely which it does against the side of large boulders or cliffs deep in the forest.
“They are sensitive – wherever you see the Picathartes they are right in the primary forest” explains Songe. “They are rare, they are shy.”
Mustapha Songe, Tour Guide and Camp Manager for the Gola Rainforest National Park, and his favourite forest creature – the White-necked Picathartes. Credits: Nick Williams/RSPB (rspb-images.com).
In addition to his main duties, Songe also has experience of monitoring Picathartes nesting colonies to support research efforts. It was at one of these colonies that he had a particularly memorable encounter.
“It was really amazing. We spotted two chimpanzees at that colony. That was one amazing surprise to me.”
And it is no surprise that Songe remembers this moment so fondly. For many it would be the encounter of a lifetime. Severely impacted by habitat loss across their range, the Gola Rainforest National Park provides an important refuge for these rarely-glimpsed Western Chimpanzees – a critically endangered chimpanzee sub-species.
Not only has his work brought him face to face with chimpanzees but Songe has also had encounters with other rare forest creatures including Leopard, Royal Antelope and many more. The richness and variety of Gola’s wildlife is something he is keen to communicate as part of his work.
“I like to share the forest with visitors” Songe explains before going on to discuss what the forest means for him. “The forest is very important, not to me only” he says, “but also to the [rest of the] community people.”
He explains how growing awareness of climate change is shifting local perceptions of the forest. This is coupled with communities’ existing extensive knowledge of the power that the forest holds, for example, in providing fresh water and controlling outbreaks of fire. People in forest-edge communities have witnessed firsthand that areas in which trees have been cleared see streams dry up faster and more frequently than in forested areas while wildfires often burn far more freely and dangerously outside the forest than they would within it.
The forests of Gola, and indeed all the world’s rainforests, are not only important in their own right but also fundamental to the lives of the people who live alongside and protect these incredible places. As the world prepares to shine a spotlight on tropical forests, there has never been a better time to remember that.
Mustapha Songe. Credit: Nick Williams/RSPB (rspb-images.com).
AcknowledgementsIn Liberia, the Community Ecoguard and Village Savings and Loans work discussed in this article is coordinated by the Society for the Conservation of Nature of Liberia (SCNL) in partnership with the RSPB and with the generous support of the Ecological Restoration Fund.
The Ecological Restoration Fund supports work that protects biodiverse hotspots, rejuvenates degraded landscapes and promotes local environmental activism. They are committed to re-establishing nature’s essential interconnections while fostering cultural, social and economic opportunities for the communities inhabiting those landscapes.
In Sierra Leone, the protection of the Gola Rainforest National Park is coordinated by Gola Rainforest Conservation. Gola Rainforest Conservation is formed by the partnership of the Government of Sierra Leone, the Conservation Society of Sierra Leone (CSSL), the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), and the people of the seven Gola Chiefdoms. The 'Cocoa Sweet Spot' project is taking place with the generous support of Jersey Overseas Aid.
Continue reading• From smart phones on patrol to secret DNA: Innovative science in the Gola Rainforest• Cocoa, cooperatives and conservation: The power of forest-friendly chocolate• Birds, Bees, Phones & Loans: The unexpected ways to protect a rainforest
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