A BOLD NEW DIRECTION ON ENVIRONMENTAL & CLIMATE ACTION

“The main objective in my New Direction administration is to protect the environment” and with these words President Bio set Sierra Leone on a new path of environmental and climate action, promising bold, practical and effective action at yesterdays’ state opening of our Parliament.

Recognizing that Sierra Leone languishes at the very bottom (163rd out of 163 countries) in the Environmental Protection Index and that Sierra Leone is also the third most vulnerable country to climate change in the world with 35% of our population at risk of dangerous climate impacts – impacts which have already affected 220,000 of our citizens over the past 15 years, causing hardship and economic loss - offers hope to us all that these fundamental issues, affecting us all and generations as yet unborn, will finally be tackled.

As campaigning environmental and climate action champions we were heartened by the Presidents’ first Executive Order introducing a monthly National Cleaning Day to rid us of the scourge of dirty and plastic pollution; mightily encouraged by his second Order banning the export of timber until certification is in place but with this bold new direction on climate change and the environment we are truly inspired.

The President promised tough policy action on:

• Environmental governance including establishing independent agencies for disaster management and meteorology; taking back the Environmental Protection Agency into the Ministry of Lands to improve accountability, collaboration and coordination as envisioned in the original 2008 Act.

• Managing forest resources and eco-system conservation with plans afoot to enforce laws to protect our historic forests and wetlands– our natural capital of international importance; regenerating and sharing management of forest cover and non-timber forest products to boost livelihoods, as well as improving Salone’smany historic sites and designating new areas for conservation and eco-tourism.

• Environmental education intensifying public information campaigns to reduce harmful practices and including environmental issues in school and university curricula to ensureour upcoming generations are well-versed in protecting and serving our environment, rich in its bio-diversity

Most importantly, the President heralded a new era of cross-sectoral working, long espoused by EBAFOSA (Eco-based Adaptation for Food SecurityAssembly)of which Sierra Leone is a signatory and member state, involving agriculture, energy, infrastructure, industry, decentralization, finance and planning - a sure-fire way to cut across silo-thinking and change our mindset so that we all learn to value and protect our environment and take action to mitigate the impacts of dangerous climate change.

The President’s remarks are printed in full below:

Environmental Management

120. Sierra Leone is presently ranked at the bottom of the Environmental Performance Index, 163 out of 163 countries in 2010, indicating phenomenal regression since the end of the civil war. The 2013 Verisk Maplecroft Index ranked Sierra Leone the 3rd most vulnerable to climate change in the world (or the 3rd country in the world with the least capacity to respond or adapt to environmental change). About 13 percentof the country's area and more than 35 percent of the population are at

risk to disasters. In the last 15 years, 4 major floods have affected 220,000 people and caused severe loss and economic damage.

121. In 2008, the Environment Protection Agency Act (hereinafter referred to as EPA Act) was passed giving the Ministry of Lands, Country Planning and the Environment policy guidance and directional functions while the regulatory functions were passed to the Agency. In 2010, the 2008 Act was amended to completely change the governance mechanism of the Environment Sector. It removed all Government Ministries previously on the Board, transferred its supervision to the Office of the President and changed the title of the Chairman of the Board to Executive Chairman and Professional Head of the Agency. The Director of the Department previously the Secretary to the Board was also expunged from the Agency. All in all, the EPA has been politicised and made generally dysfunctional without any effective collaboration and co-ordination between itself and the many MDAs so essential for the proper observance and implementation of environmental regulations.

122. The main objective in my New Direction administration is to protect the environment. Specifically, the policy actions will focus on (i) environmental governance (ii) managing forest resources (iii) ecosystem conservation and (iv) environmental education.

123. In the area of Environmental governance, my administration will

(i) review the EPA 2010 Act and placed it under the supervision of the Ministry of Lands, Housing and the Environment

(ii) monitor industrial establishments for compliance with environmental laws and regulations

(iii) establish independent agencies for disaster management and meteorology to improve the knowledge base and expand actions for early warning and disaster risk reduction

(iv) ensure environmental sustainability of development policies, programmes and projects at national and local level by mainstreaming environmental issues across sectors particularly agriculture, energy, infrastructure, industry, decentralization, finance and planning

(v) develop a national programme for the regeneration and shared management of forest cover and related products

(vi) strengthen public/private partnerships for forest conservation, especially the establishment of woodlots and commodification of Non-Timber Forest Products (NTFPs)

(vii) adequately enforce laws and policies to protect forests and designate new areas for conservation and ecotourism

(viii) intensify education and information campaigns to reduce practices harmful to the environment

(ix) support the teaching of environmental matters in the curricula of schools, colleges and universities.

With such bold, yet practical, environmental and climate action promised, surely Sierra Leone will reverse our environmental degradation, turn the corner and become a jewel in the community of African nations.

We will campaign to hold this government to its bold new direction and promise to play our part, as we urge others to, keeping our environment and climate action above mere party politics.

#environment