From dry land overlooking the Atlantic at high tide, a coconut tree stands tall in the water. Others had since fallen. This is in Bonthe district, on Sierra Leone’s southern coast. Here, the fishermen all say that salt water is intruding into the estuaries. There is a temporary boom in upriver fishing as the fish spawn deeper into the swamps. At Gangama, a riverside village the women and children scoop out fish from the marshes where rapidly declining water has left many trapped. Gleefully they report what they perceive as the madness of the fish, coming so far inland to escape the salt.

Bonthe’s mangroves are flourishing though; the dearth of population on Bonthe means less rampant deforestation than in other coastal communities. But the spreading of the mangroves is another indication of ocean water creeping inland. Because it is upon this water the mangroves thrive. The local people are not climate scientists, but they have noticed that the state of the coastal ecology is not what it was thirty years ago.

Joseph Rahall is a development activist and native of Bonthe. He is coordinationg with the Netherlands Committee of the IUCN, Njala University, the environmental awareness group Green Scenery and the Union of Environmental Journalists to undertake the 2009 Gbonogokama Community Forest Assessment.

For the people of his village Gangama, and adjacent Taetima and Mesima, he speaks in local language about the water cycle. “This is my introduction to climate change education for beginners”, he said. Relating the importance of forest conservation to the availability of rain and groundwater is something that they can be seen comprehending.

Explaining in the local language about polar ice caps and global warming due to carbon emissions is a bit trickier. But it is accomplished and one can see the astonishment on the faces of people who have never seen snow or more that cooler-full of ice.

At night, a portable generator is lit, and it is explained unabashedly that this is a source of the harmful gases. A DVD projector is set up and a Mende translator begins to accompany the visuals of that famous documentary by Al Gore. The visuals include great chunks of icebergs breaking off, retreating glaciers and some shocking graphics of disappearing lakes and future floods risks. Men, women and children are reflective as the generator is put off.

Tomorrow is Day Two of Joseph Rahall’s climate change education for the no-longer beginners. There is a buzz of talk before the session, and its all on climate change. One man even insists that his friends is talks too much, thereby producing most of the GHG in Gangama. There are a few questions, but no more doubt. These people now know the meaning of climate change and can link it to their own environment.

The Chiefdom Speaker did not translate the film the previous evening, but says he has a duty to make this knowledge more widespread in the Nongoba Bullom Chiefdom. Along with the other handful of chiefdoms in the Bonthe district, the signs of climate changes are commonplace, including heat waves, saltier wells and heavier storms.

There is no doubt in his mind that local forest resources must be conserved, but he is concerned about a reduced livelihood if the forests are not exploited. “Where are the incentives to establish fuel wood nurseries?” he asks. In Bonthe, agricultural land is very fertile when the forest is cleared off. This same forest contains the finest redwood in Sierra Leone and countless other timber, medicinal and fruit varieties. “How can the expertise be brought in to teach us how to sustain ourselves from the forest without losing the forest?” he asks again in Mende.

Joseph Rahall has empathy for his people. At no cost to them, he is preaching sustainable forest management and climate change awareness. He agrees that the Chiefdom Speaker is justified in requesting incentives. As an erudite son of the soil, Rahall know that carbon credits must ultimately trickle down to such people.

After 2012, REDD or some type of payment for various ecosystem services will be phased in globally. For the people of Bonthe, retreating along with the entire West African Coast, to the sea, these ecosystem payments are a requisite. They realize this in great part because one person sought to educate many about climate change. But in Joseph Rahall’s view, in the absence of a concrete agreement by ANNEXXE1 Nations to curb GHG emissions, and minus the funding for the billions of poor to be affected by carbon-induced climate changes, “Adaptation is madness”.