Resilient Urban Sierra Leone Project

Project preparation advance (PPA) enabled the Freetown City Council (FCC) in partner with CBOs to plant and grow 225,000 trees in 48 reforestation areas across Freetown. Phase 1 of the tree planting has been completed and created 550 short term-jobs, especially for youth, women and other vulnerable groups affected by the economic impact of COVID-19. Phase 2 will focus on tree monitoring to ensure a high tree survival rate and knowledge development based on lessons learned for further capacity building. A comprehensive forest inventory across Freetown’s 11 catchment areas using remote sensing, will catalog and monitor existing and potential tree and vegetation cover, and research will be conducted to improve forest performance and foster adaptive community-based management to increase the diverse tree population citywide, using “right tree, right place” principles to preserve and enhance local natural biodiversity.