Promoting community-led forest conservation in Guinea

By Aliou Diallo

On a cloudy dull morning, a group of 15 men briskly tend to hundreds of little black bags in Ouléouon village, in Guinea’s south eastern region of N’Zérékore. Behind them, rows of little black bags with tree seedlings are neatly arranged in rows. “In a few weeks, the seedlings will be ready for planting in demarcated zones in Mount Béro forest”, says Zaoro Haba, one of the men tending to the seedlings.  

Mt Béro classified forest, part of the Guinea montane forests which extends across portion of Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Cote d’ Ivoire, covers about 26,850 hectares.  The forest is home to many species including the pygmy hippopotamus (Choeropsis liberiensis), western chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes verus), in addition to more than 88 bird species including the Copper-tailed Starling (Hylopsar cupreocauda), Palm-nut Vulture (Gypohierax angolensis), and the Western Long-tailed Hornbill (Horizocerus albocristatus)  among others.

Further, more than 111,584 people from N’Zérékoré, Beyla, and Lola regions depend on the forest for livelihoods, underlining its importance. However, in recent decades, the forest is increasingly under pressure from deforestation, illegal logging, and encroachment.

Since April 2023, Guinée Écologie (GE) in collaboration with the N’Zérékore Forestry Center, and BirdLife International have been carrying out a project aimed at restoring degraded areas of the forest. Funded by the L’OCCITANE Foundation, the project targets 9597 local community members in five communities Lomou, Gounangalaye, Kabiéta, Ouléouon, and Foozou à Saadou in N’zérékoré.

A key aspect of this project is the involvement of local communities in restoration activities.  GE and partners mobilized 25 villages into committees, with over 200 community members involved in forest management.   Since 2023, more than 75 hectares of forest have been restored, with 50 hectares restored in 2024 alone. In addition, GE has conducted awareness raising activities targeting local communities.

“Collective action to conserve biodiversity is the key to preserving our forests. Every tree planted is a commitment to biodiversity and climate resilience”, notes Mamadou Diawara, GE’s Executive Director.

The reforested plants included local forest species such as African crabwood (Carapa procera) African limba wood (Terminalia superba), Africa Walnut (Lovoa trichilioides) and Sapele (Entadrophragma cylindricum) among others, all adapted to the Mont Béro ecosystem. In addition to reforestation, GE has carried out an ecological inventory of the local fauna, in particular mammals, birds and reptiles, revealing the extraordinary biological richness of this forest massif. GE’s researchers counted several species and highlighted the presence of rare animals.

In addition, a community nursery was established in 2024. Currently, 28,000 forest seedlings are in the nursery, ready to be planted in the coming seasons, to scale up restoration efforts. Beyond the numbers, the project has had a positive social impact. Local employment has been diversified with nursery, reforestation and surveillance activities, offering young people income opportunities. Above all, a new ecological awareness is emerging – the importance of the Mount Béro forest to the local communities.

“I was born and raised in Béro.  I welcome this project because it helps us not only to reforest, but also to improve our living conditions. We are the guardians of this forest”, says Haba.

During the village committee meetings, local community members underlined their commitment to the restoration activities, while highlighting the project’s impact.

“I used to see the forest retreat every year, and that worried me for our children’s future. A lot of young people were going to cut wood or burn down new plots to grow crops. We didn’t know that there were other ways of living with the forest without destroying it. The arrival of the project changed everything”, says Marcel Loua, a teacher in Ouléouon.

“Today, I’m part of the local conservation committee and I spend my free time replanting trees. I’ve learned how to raise seedlings in nurseries and cultivate my field better without encroaching on the forest. On reforestation days, the whole village gets together like for a party: we plant together and protect the young trees from bush fires”, says Jacques Nema, president of the Laminata group, one of the village groups in the region.

Marcelline Haba, a resident of Kabiéta village highlights the importance of protecting the forest for future generations.  “I realized that the Mont Béro forest is our common heritage. It gives us water, keeps the climate cool and is home to various animals and birds. I now teach my children to be proud guardians of the forest. I know that if we take care of the forest, it will take care of us”, notes Haba. 

However, restoration efforts have not been without challenges, including initial reluctance by some communities to change their traditional practices, and an arson attack that ravaged 10 ha of reforested area in Kabiéta village in 2024. Despite these obstacles, exchanges at international events such as United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 29) in November 2024, and the BirdLife Council for the Africa Partnership (CAP) meeting in September 2024, have helped to promote the project’s achievements and pave the way for new partnerships

In the short term, GE aims to build the capacity of local communities through ongoing training and greater involvement in natural resource management. In the long term, the project plans to develop alternative income-generating activities, such as sustainable agriculture, to establish autonomous and resilient ecosystem management.

In addition, scaling up of the project will enable reforestation and ecological monitoring activities to be extended to other degraded areas in the region, while creating new economic opportunities for local communities.  It is envisaged that this forest conservation participatory model, which has already proved its effectiveness, will serve as a benchmark for other conservation initiatives in Guinea.

“Forests are the lungs of our planet and the heart of our ecosystems. Together, let’s take action for their conservation and sustainable management”, concludes Diawara.