Guinea: more than 600,000 hectares of forests have been lost in recent years

Every March 21, the world celebrates the International Day of Forests, an opportunity to highlight the importance of the forest and encourage massive awareness among populations.  This day is also an opportunity to highlight local initiatives aimed at forest restoration.

Every year 10 million hectares of forests disappear due to deforestation and around 70 million hectares go up in smoke, according to the United Nations.

A forest is well-being

However, forests play a crucial role for the well-being and balance of the ecosystem. They contribute to biological diversity on earth. They are home to half of the terrestrial species of animals and insects. Forests also store carbon, which helps limit the average increase in global temperature and fight global warming. 1.6 billion people depend on forests for their livelihoods, providing food, shelter and employment. This is why the world celebrates the International Day of Forests every March 21 to raise public awareness of the importance of forests.

When is it from Guinea?

In Guinea, forests are strongly impacted by human activities, notably deforestation due to the carbonization of wood, bush fires, intensive agriculture or massive cutting of wood for commercial reasons. Clear forests and secondary forests are the most affected by deforestation. In 2014, the country had 2,744,272 hectares of clear forest over the period from 2015 to 2020. Today it has lost 689,957 hectares of forest according to data published in the CDN (Nationally Determined Contribution) of 2021.

Local initiatives

Non-governmental organizations such as the NGO Agir Contre le Réchage Climatiques are involved through concrete actions to promote the restoration of the forest ecosystem.“A birthday a tree”is a challenge initiated in November 2018 by the NGO which made it possible to reforest 10 thousand plants.

It consists of planting one or more trees on the occasion of your birthday.“Today we are recording people planting 100 to 50 plants on their birthdays”, explains Abdoulaye Gounkou Bah, Executive Director of the NGO Agir Contre le Réchage Climatique.

Beyond that, the NGO in its citizen action launched a project entitled“Donkin legal”in 2020 which makes success. It also involves organizing reforestation campaigns on a national scale on the occasion of each tabaski festival.

“The “Donkin legal” project consists of awakening the conscience of the Guinean, and also of the world population to say at each tabaski festival, the Muslim faithful must plant a tree, this will allow us to easily restore the forests”, says Abdoulaye Gounkou Bah, Executive Director of the NGO Agir Contre le Réchage Climatique. This project, which is in its third edition, has made it possible to plant 20,000 trees across the country.

 A strategic choice for reforestation 

The choice of sites to afforestation is strategic for the NGO.  In Conakry, for example, the Kakimbo forest tops the list because of the uncontrolled urbanization it faces.

“The Kakimbo forest is a historic forest which was built before the independence of Guinea which covered more than 127 hectares but today which finds itself with around ten hectares”, explains Abdoulaye Gounkou Bah.

“Our objective in Kakimbo is to restore around fifteen hectares of forest, and then, the mining areas in particular Siguiri, Boké and Gaoual. And especially along rivers”, adds the Executive Director of the NGO Acting Against Global Warming.

Preserving and restoring forests remains crucial for the world. This is a major challenge and it is good for humanity. These forests guarantee common well-being.

Ibrahima Sory BAH