The road to Lalehun village cuts through red dust and dense forest, offering an early sign of how closely local communities live with the Gola Rainforest, one of West Africa’s most important protected ecosystems.
Covering about 40,000 hectares, the Gola Rainforest is home to rare plant and animal species and supports thousands of people who depend on it for farming, fishing and forest-based livelihoods. For residents of villages like Lalehun, the forest is not a distant conservation project but a daily presence that shapes life and survival.
“This forest is our inheritance,” said Town Chief Momoh Kai-Kombay. “It protects our land and keeps animals and plants that cannot be replaced. We have seen what mining has done in other places, and we do not want that here.”
The Gola Rainforest, which stretches along Sierra Leone’s border with Liberia, is recognised internationally for its biodiversity and its role in combating climate change by absorbing carbon emissions. Conservation groups and local authorities say community involvement has been key to protecting the forest from threats such as illegal logging and mining.
Residents say the forest provides food, medicinal plants and clean water, while also safeguarding farmland from erosion and extreme weather. Community leaders argue that preserving Gola is essential not only for environmental reasons, but also for securing long-term economic stability for future generations.
As pressure on natural resources increases across the region, villages surrounding the Gola Rainforest continue to advocate for conservation over exploitation, insisting that protecting the forest is inseparable from protecting their own future.
