Sierra Leone’s flagship Western Area Peninsula National Park (WAP-NP), home to the Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary, is facing severe threats from unprecedented deforestation and illegal urban encroachment.
This environmental degradation not only imperils critically endangered Western chimpanzees, like the orphaned babies Esther and Rio, but also poses significant risks to the water supply and well-being of over two million people in nearby Freetown.
In protest against the rapid environmental decline, the Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary has been closed to tourists since late May, urging government action.
The sanctuary, a leading centre for chimp rehabilitation, wildlife research, and conservation education, reports a rise in rescued chimpanzees due to increasing habitat destruction.
Since 2000, Sierra Leone has lost 39% of its forest cover, with nearly a third of WAP-NP’s 18,000 hectares severely degraded since 2012. Mining, logging, urban development, and poaching traps set close to chimp habitats are exacerbating the crisis.
The dangers extend directly to Freetown’s inhabitants, whose water supply relies on the Guma Dam within WAP-NP. Rapid and uncontrolled urbanisation in the dam’s valley leads to runoff, increasing silt in the reservoir and creating sanitation issues.
Maada Kpenge, managing director of the Guma Valley Water Company, warns that without the forest’s regulatory role in the water cycle, the dam’s levels will drastically drop, potentially making Freetown “almost impossible” to live in within 10-15 years.
Despite the government blaming past opaque land allocation and highlighting new, stricter laws, activists argue these regulations are inadequately enforced.
Under-equipped forest rangers struggle to combat illegal activities, often facing situations where they confront squatters who claim legitimate land ownership through corrupt means. This institutional failure, according to sanctuary director Bala Amarasekaran, is appalling, as perpetrators often face no penalties.
Beyond immediate impacts, deforestation contributes to extreme temperatures and exacerbates soil erosion, a critical concern following Freetown’s deadly 2017 landslide.
Even rehabilitated orphan chimps like Esther and Rio must remain within the sanctuary’s protected wilderness, unable to return to dwindling wild populations.
Amarasekaran stresses the hypocrisy of boasting a “world-class sanctuary” while failing to protect its surrounding environment, urging urgent, decisive action to preserve this vital natural heritage for both wildlife and human populations.
