The Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change has deployed data collectors in the districts of Bo, Pujehun, Moyamba, and Bonthe in the Southern Region to gather data for the National Forestry Inventory Project.

The Ministry received funding from the European Union, with technical support from the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), to implement the ‘Support to Sustainable Forest in Sierra Leone’ Project through the National Forest Inventory for Sierra Leone.

The NFI is a three-year project aimed at strengthening Sierra Leone’s forestry sector by enhancing technical and institutional capacities in the design and development of the National Forest Monitoring System.

The National Coordinator of the NFI, Abu Patrick Mattia, explained that the orientation exercise held on September 17th, 2025, in Bo was intended to refresh the data collectors on their roles as outlined in the National Forestry Field Manual, which details the procedures, types, and quality of data to be collected.

Mr. Mattia added that each field team would be equipped with the necessary logistics and equipment needed for their tasks, including motorbikes, tablets, a generator, and a GPS, among others.

The Project’s National Expert, Dr. Anthony Lamin-Samu, highlighted the importance of data quality, stating that a quality assurance team (QAQC) would supervise and verify the data collection process to ensure consistency.

He urged the collectors to gather accurate data capable of withstanding scrutiny.

Each team consists of 5 to 7 members, with a team leader assigned to cover at least 15 clusters out of the 141 clusters in this phase.

Teams are expected to spend up to two months in the field collecting data on forest regeneration, tree sizes and heights, inter-tree distances, tree species identification, and forest canopy cover levels.

According to Dr. Samu, this data can be utilised to promote sustainable forest management, enhance planning and decision-making, and monitor forest and land-use activities for mitigation and adaptation, as needed.

The data collected will also be used to calculate biomass, support carbon credit calculations, and determine carbon stocks for trading purposes.

©NFI Communications