I have recently travelled to Sierra Leone and Liberia as part of an Elephant Protection Initiative Foundation (EPIF) project to help improve the security of wildlife products in government custody and thereby support the conservation of elephants and other species. Funded by the UK government through its Illegal Wildlife Trade Challenge Fund, our project aims to “Secure Wildlife Product Stockpiles in five West African countries”, including Burkina Faso, Guinea and Togo.
Our project’s objectives are to help all five countries strengthen wildlife product storerooms and improve management procedures, to implement the EPIF Stockpile Management System (SMS) digital inventory tool, and to work with governments to consider the long-term fate of illegal wildlife trade products through policy review. The EPIF already has a decade of experience delivering similar projects in ten other EPI member states.
Sierra Leone and Liberia probably have only a few hundred surviving elephants between them. Still, they are both rich in biodiversity, and it is exciting to have the opportunity to support them in improving their wildlife conservation and law enforcement. My initial visits were in December 2024, with the aim being to conduct a baseline assessment in each country and project planning with our partners. Firstly, I travelled to Sierra Leone, where our government partner is the Forestry Department of the Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change (MoECC).
Arriving in Freetown via the international airport for the first time is a wonderful experience, involving a 10-minute bus ride to the ferry terminal in Tulun, followed by a 40-minute ferry across Tagrin Bay to the city itself. With the sun setting across the panoramic views of the nearby forests and waterways, I was immediately struck by the raw beauty and rich biodiversity of the country and felt inspired by my small role in helping to protect them.
I enjoyed three excellent days of meetings and discussion groups with stakeholders in Freetown. Our local NGO partner is the Conservation Society of Sierra Leone (CSSL), a long-term actor on the local conservation scene, which masterfully supported my visit in all sorts of ways. We visited institutions involved in the handling of wildlife products held by the government in Sierra Leone, including the Forestry Department, the National Protected Area Authority (NPAA), and the Gola Rainforest National Park conservation authority. We found an urgent need for our project to help improve secure storage and a receptive community of experts to support us in our aims.
I flew from Freetown to Monrovia in Liberia. Monrovia’s airport is nearly 40 miles outside the city, meaning that once again I was treated to views of stunning and awe-inspiring natural beauty on arrival. After a long drive down the highway, which hugs the coastline of the populated Monrovia urban sector, I was set and ready to go for another assessment and planning visit. Our government partner in Liberia is the Forestry Development Authority (FDA), the main authority for all land-based conservation projects and initiatives. We had excellent engagement from various conservation stakeholders in Liberia, including various departments in the FDA, the Liberia National Police, Conservation International (CI), and Flora and Fauna International (FFI).
One of the most successful aspects of the trip was an agreement with the Society for the Conservation of Nature of Liberia (SCNL) that they should be our local NGO partner in this project. SCNL has some highly experienced and dedicated conservationists and will be a huge asset in supporting our work to deliver our project. We also held an excellent meeting with the UK Ambassador to Monrovia, Neil Bradley, who gave his wholehearted support to our endeavours and provided some extremely useful context on wider UK and other international conservation support to Liberia.
The highlight of this visit was a day trip with FDA partners to visit their team in the Lake Piso Multiple Sustainable Use Reserve, a potential site for development as a field wildlife storage location. The visit provided useful insights into operating conditions on the ground, as well as a unique and privileged view of one of Liberia’s breathtaking reserves. We developed a work plan with our partners based on the needs identified during the assessment.
In March 2025, we carried out the first activities in each country, two-day workshops to develop management procedures for wildlife products storerooms in both Monrovia and Freetown. My visits went smoothly, except for one hiccup just after I arrived in Liberia. A short way into my journey to Monrovia from the airport, we unfortunately suffered a flat tyre. With darkness falling and the vehicle’s spare tyre being unyielding in our attempts to remove it from its bracket, it looked like being a long night. Fortunately, a passing traveller stopped to give us support and ended up giving me a lift to my hotel.
By chance, this happened to be the Liberian Minister for International Organisations, Hon. Karishma Pelham-Raad. This led to a highly useful conversation about the international development sector in Liberia and a follow-up meeting to discuss our EPIF project. Hon. Karishma Pelham-Raad was highly supportive of our aims and made it clear we have an ally for our project in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
In both Liberia and Sierra Leone, with the support of our local NGO and government partners, we brought together a range of wildlife professionals to develop procedures which suit their specific needs. These events were highly successful. In both countries, we enjoyed lively and engaging discussions and were able to develop draft documents for each of them. We will disseminate these drafts to stakeholders for comment before holding a validation meeting later this year to finalise their procedures. This is a vital first step to give a formal foundation for the work to come.
We are creating the conditions for project implementation over the next 2 years, during which we hope to strengthen wildlife product storerooms, implement the SMS, hold technical meetings on each country’s legal policies, and conduct training and mentoring events for key wildlife staff. It is an exciting year to come as we develop Liberia and Sierra Leone’s capacity to secure wildlife product stockpiles and thereby help to reduce the impact of the illegal wildlife trade across West Africa!
It is an exciting year to come as we develop Liberia and Sierra Leone’s capacity to secure wildlife product stockpiles and thereby help to reduce the impact of the illegal wildlife trade across West Africa!
By Charles Henson, Programme Manager for Stockpiles, EPIF