Conservation of Aberdeen Creek for people and birds

The Conservation Society of Sierra Leone is BirdLife’s Sierra Leonean partner and co-funder of the project.

The association is proposing to work in Aberdeen Creek, Sierra Leone’s only Ramsar site, which forms part of the Sierra Leone River estuary on the western periphery of the capital, Freetown, and covers 110 ha of shoreline as well as 1,800 ha of mangroves.

The site is classified as an Important Bird Area (IBA) because it serves as a stopover for Palearctic migratory birds, such as the great snipe (Gallinago media), a threatened species that had been observed there a few years ago and appears to have since disappeared from the area. It is also home to manatee populations and 5 species of marine turtles. Mangrove wood cutting, sand extraction and infrastructure development within the creek pose a serious threat to this ecosystem.

The project’s objective is therefore to rehabilitate 3,250 ha of degraded mangrove areas and to advance the process of establishing a protected area, already launched by the Sierra Leone Environmental Protection Agency (SLEPA), so that, among other things, the site can attract more birdwatching tourism and generate greater tourism revenue for the 6 communities of Aberdeen and Cockrill/Lumley, whose indirect beneficiaries are estimated at around 10,000 people.