MONROVIA (Reuters) - Sierra Leone will ban timber exports until at least
March to help the West African country halt damage to its tropical forests and
climate, President Ernest Bai Koroma said.
Sierra Leone suspended the export of wood in a surprise move on Monday,
saying indiscriminate destruction by Chinese loggers in the country's north was
wreaking havoc by triggering soil erosion that has displaced wildlife and local
people.
"It was not the Chinese alone but we had a lot of logging activities which
were uncontrolled," said Bai Koroma, who won a September election on promises to
tackle corruption.
"We are losing what is left of our environment and it is affecting our
climate and other things," he said in an interview late on Thursday during a
stopover in neighbouring Liberia.
"That is why we have imposed a temporary ban until we reorganise the entire
logging industry."
The president, a 54-year-old former insurance executive, said logging
companies should help reforest areas where they were active.
"Give or take a couple of weeks, by March we will be able to come out with a
new policy direction," Koroma said.
A 1991-2002 civil war, which displaced a third of Sierra Leone's population,
had prevented the country from formulating a comprehensive forestry plan
earlier.
But Koroma has taken several environmental measures, including the creation
of a 75,000-hectare national park in the Gola Forest, a former logging area near
the Liberian border.
The national park -- only the country's second -- is home to leopards,
chimpanzees and forest elephants.
More than 90 percent of the primary rainforests of the former British colony
have been destroyed, but ecologists are keen to ward off desertification by
protecting new forests.
TOURISM
As it rebuilds its economy, Sierra Leone hopes to benefit from enticing
visitors to its tropical beaches, tree-carpeted mountain ranges and lush
savannahs. Koroma aims to establish more parks to attract eco-tourism.
As part of government efforts to reduce Freetown's reliance on polluting
diesel generators, Koroma said the long-delayed Bumbuna hydroelectric dam should
be finished by the end of 2008.
The dam, located among hills about 200 km (120 miles) northeast of Freetown,
was begun in the 1970s as an Italian aid project but was suspended because of
the war, corruption and a lack of cash. It will provide 50 megawatts of power,
enough to light up Freetown and other towns.
"We have put together the funding that is required to complete the dam,"
Koroma said. "Hopefully by June, all the work will have been completed ... and,
all being well, by the end of 2008 we will have light from Bumbuna."
Work on the project stalled again last year because of a funding shortfall of
30 million euros ($43 million), after looters stole 207 km (130 miles) of
transmission cables and many of the pylons that link the dam to Freetown to sell
for scrap.
The World Bank estimates lack of power reduces the country's economic growth,
currently at 7.5 percent, by 1 to 2 percent. More than 70 percent of its 6
million people live in poverty.
After meeting his Liberian counterpart Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, who is trying
to rebuild her country after a 1989-2004 civil war, Koroma said the dam could
benefit Sierra Leone's neighbours Liberia and Guinea.
"By all means, if we have more (power) than what is required then we will
share it within the Mano River countries," he said.
MONROVIA (Reuters) - Sierra Leone will ban timber exports until at least
March to help the West African country halt damage to its tropical forests and
climate, President Ernest Bai Koroma said.
