Sierra Leone Protection Measures for Chimpanzees a ‘Premium Result’

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Chimpanzees in Sierra Leone now safer thanks to new law.

Humane Society International staff members working on chimpanzee protection in Africa rejoiced at the July 25 news that Sierra Leone is prohibiting the capture and killing of chimpanzees. The announcement came just a few months after HSI conducted legal analysis and law enforcement training as part of the USAID-funded Chimpanzee Conservation and Sensitization Program (CCSP).

Sierra Leone's national wildlife law had lacked the protective framework typical of legislation in many other CITES member nations, a weakness underscored by an HSI report written for the CCSP program in 2007. That report recommended that the government take explicit steps to protect chimpanzees under law.

The HSI-led law enforcement training took place in Freetown, Sierra Leone's capital on March 28-29, bringing together wildlife officials, customs officers, and others with responsibility for law enforcement and educational work. The two day workshop focused on Sierra Leone's own laws as well as the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).

The USAID-sponsored chimpanzee program is a multi-year initiative in two countries whose partners include HSI, the Jane Goodall Institute, the Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary, and the Conservation Society of Sierra Leone. In both Sierra Leone and Guinea, these organizations have been working on public awareness education, an assessment of legal and law enforcement capacity, and community-centered conservation efforts that stress the benefits of preserving wildlife and wildlife habitat.

"The forest border area between Sierra Leone and neighboring Guinea is a crucial habitat zone for chimpanzees, and the new edict gives a boost to the efforts of in-country groups working to save the animals," said Michael Kennedy of HSI Australia, which provided funding for the Freetown workshop.

According to HSI's Bernard Unti, author of the February 2007 report produced for the USAID-CCSP partnership, the law sets the stage for better and broader educational efforts throughout Sierra Leone. 

"There's still time to save the chimpanzee populations in Sierra Leone, and having an explicit prohibition to rely upon will make the job much easier," Unti said.

Current estimates put the number of chimpanzees in Sierra Leone at 2,000, and the population in Guinea at 25,000. The two nations, beset by poverty and unrest for several decades, have limited capacity to pursue law enforcement and educational work in relation to wildlife protection. In both countries, however, government agencies and non-profit organizations have expressed their willingness and desire to do more.

In Sierra Leone, where an 11-year civil war came to an end in 2002, the potential for improving law enforcement and promoting public compliance looks bright.

Above all, there are strong in-country partners like the Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary, which has been anchoring chimpanzee protection in Sierra Leone since its founding in 1995.

With a stronger legal mandate secured, the struggle to save chimpanzees in Sierra Leone now moves into the realm of public education and action to halt the killing of chimpanzees for bushmeat and the pet trade, as well as to the preservation of crucial habitat.

“Dollar for dollar, this was one of the most successful investments of international funds you could hope for,” Unti said. “Together with our partners, we helped to secure a legal prohibition on the killing of endangered species and took steps to strengthen an enforcement and public awareness infrastructure. For just two years, that is a premium result.”