For years, people living below the poverty line have resorted to forest exploitation to make money. This has not benefitted the forest which is now disappearing without signs of replacement. Not only is this deforestation depleting water reserves, but it is ruining the viability of the forest as a tourist attraction.

The Conservation of the Western Area Peninsula Forest and its Watershed Project aims to address this by convincing people to protect the forest. Residents of the Western Area who harvest wood from the forest seem to be accepting government moves to demarcate the forest but are asking for alternative livelihoods that do not depend on fire wood or charcoal. When interviewed by Africanews.com, this was a frequent recommendation.

With very few alternatives through a lack of literacy or vocational training, the wood from the forest is an easy commodity for at least 100,000 people living directly within the reserve. Many of the 1.5 million residents around the Western Area also depend largely on fire wood and charcoal to cook, bake and smoke fish. This need for wood provides the reason why many people are reluctant to stop removing it from the forest.

The peninsular communities of Tombo, Koba Wata, Kissy Town and Boyah-Fakia harvest firewood on an industrial scale to smoke fish. When a cross section of sixty residents along this axis were asked about their role in the protection of the forest, they appealed for more information about forest protection, skills training and microfinance to embark upon non-forest related businesses.

People in the Tombo area also told Africanews.com that they want to be fully involved in the identification of a community buffer between their residences and the core forest reserve.

The communities identified the key stakeholders in the demarcation process including cooperation between Lands and Forestry Departments, the Environmental Forum for Action and the German NGO Welthungerhilfe which is implementing EU funds to save the Western Area Peninsula Forest Reserve.

The communities also placed a lot of emphasis on a cordial relationship between the communities and their local forest guards.

M’baimba Turay, a resident of Tombo told Africanews.com that lands are acquired through inheritance, lease, sale, or grabbing and endorsed the establishment of a community forest buffer, to avoid further cases of the latter.