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Gola Rainforest Conservation

Sierra Leone

Forest protection (REDD+)

Conserving the highly endangered Gola Rainforest to prevent 500,000 tonnes of CO2e from entering the atmosphere every year.

  • Project type:

    Forest protection (REDD+)

  • Project status:

    Monitoring

  • Methodology:

    VM0007

  • Project area (ha):

    69,714

  • Project zone (ha):

    132,646

  • Validator:

    Rainforest Alliance, Inc.

Standards

UN Sustainable Development Goals:

This CCB Double Gold validated project conserves the highly threatened Gola Rainforest National Park – Sierra Leone’s largest remaining area of Upper Guinea Tropical Rainforest and one of the world’s most important biodiversity hotspots.

Project activities focus on strengthening the conservation strategy and effective management of the area as well as addressing the drivers of deforestation by working with local communities to encourage sustainable development and land use planning. These include cocoa mapping and growing to produce sustainable chocolate and loan schemes to help small businesses.

Project developer

Gola Rainforest Conservation LG

The Gola Rainforest Conservation Limited Liability Partnership (LG) is a conservation organization dedicated to the protection and sustainable management of the Gola Rainforest in Sierra Leone and Liberia.

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Location

The Gola REDD project is located in the south east of Sierra Leone.

Our impact

In addition to climate mitigation, the protection of the Gola Rainforest has a significant impact on biodiversity conservation and rural livelihoods. The project has a focus on education and supports community members to develop small businesses.

  • Number of hectares under conservation

    69,714

  • Tonnes of carbon prevented from entering the atmosphere per year

    19 million tonnes

    The project ensures 19 million tonnes of carbon emissions are not released into the atmosphere. This is equivalent to approximately 500,000 tonnes of CO2e annually.

  • Tonnes of CO2 sequestered from atmosphere

    460,000 tonnes

    Since 2012, the project area has sequestered 460,000 tonnes CO2e

  • Number of people benefiting from the project activities

    The project runs 35 farmer field schools to help local farmers integrate commercially viable and sustainable practices into their work. To date, 90 ‘master farmers’ have been trained and a further 66 have qualified as gender inclusivity trainers. The project runs 35 community-managed loan schemes. To date, 450 people have benefited, primarily women

  • Carbon revenue and beyond-carbon benefits

    In 2017, 658 scholarships for secondary schools were awarded to children whose families could not afford to educate their children past primary school

Gola Rainforest Conservation https://www.respira-international.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Gola-Rainforest-Conservation-Project-3.pdf

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