By John Kamara, projects facilitator, Sierra Leone Environment Matters (GLFx Kenema)

The phone rang. It was the village chief of Kotomahun. 

A group of chimpanzees had raided a farm, pillaging its cocoa and corn fields. Outraged, the villagers fought back and captured one of the chimps. 

We hopped in a car and headed straight to the village. When we arrived, the entire community was gathered around a young chimp sitting on the ground. 

Jina Adu, the local farmer who had captured the chimp, leapt to his feet.

“These animals are destroying our lives. They come in groups, destroy everything and leave us with nothing.”

Only hungry chimpanzees steal from humans

Kotomahun is located on the edge of the Kambui Hills Forest Reserve in eastern Sierra Leone. Most of its 2,000 inhabitants are smallholder farmers who live off the land, depending on it for food and income.

This is the ancestral home of the Mende people, who are known for their strong farming traditions and deep connection to the land. 

The area is packed with cocoa and coffee farms, rice and corn fields, vegetable gardens and forests. Life in the village moves with the seasons: people plant, care for their crops and harvest.

But the Kambui Hills have been slowly destroyed by relentless logging, mining, overhunting and charcoal production. 

Its wildlife populations have been decimated, and the animals that remain are going hungry – turning to farms to find food to survive.

This year, the crisis deepened when the government granted FJ Mining a license to extract minerals from large areas of the reserve. 

Their operations will scar the landscape and displace countless endangered primate species, including western chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus), red colobus monkeys (Piliocolobus) and Diana monkeys (Cercopithecus diana), as well as other wildlife such as duikers and birds.

“Deforestation leaves wild chimpanzees struggling to find food like fruits, nuts and other plants they depend on, which is driving them to raid farms and fueling conflict with local communities,” says Sophie Collier, conservation manager at the Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary.

“Local communities react by killing the adults and capturing the babies. Often, the meat from the slaughtered adults is sold as bushmeat, increasing the risk of zoonotic disease outbreaks. Sadly, a lifetime of misery awaits baby chimpanzees sold as pets.” 

The chimpanzee sitting before us, had we not been there, would have faced the same fate. 

That tiny chimp, whom we would soon name Mo Sidikie, became a symbol of a broken ecosystem and the widespread issue of human–wildlife conflict.

For me, the sight of that small, terrified chimp was an indictment of everything we had lost – our sacred connection to the land and our relationship with the animals of the forest.

Addressing human–wildlife conflict in Sierra Leone

My name is John Kamara. Growing up in Kenema, a city near the Kambui Hills, I saw the forest as a thriving ecosystem. My family had a large cocoa and coffee farm near the forest, and I spent most of my childhood working on the farm and exploring the forest. 

Those early experiences surrounded by nature sparked my passion for the environment and inspired me to dedicate my life to protecting it. That’s why I founded Sierra Leone Environment Matters (SLEM), a community-based organisation raising awareness of human–wildlife conflict resolution and protecting forest-dependent communities in Kenema.

My first education was my grandfather’s stories about the Kambui Hills. I still remember the scent of the ripe cacao on his farm, which is how I learned that monkeys really love eating ripe cocoa seeds in their pods! 

I remember the creek, calm but strong, which he called the heart of the forest. 

“Every creature has its own role, from the tiniest insect to the largest elephant. It’s all connected, and every living thing matters in keeping the forest alive,” he told me.

For a very long time, our people lived in harmony with the forest. Now, the balance is breaking down because we’ve broken the forest. 

That day in Kotomahun, our team intervened, and Mo was transported to the Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary. The sanctuary takes in orphaned and injured chimpanzees and other wild animals, including monkeys and pangolins, from across Sierra Leone. 

So far this year, the sanctuary has taken in five orphaned chimpanzees and five rescued monkeys. 

Mo has now been at the sanctuary for four months. During this time, he spent 90 days in quarantine for health checks and was given nourishment and treated for minor bruises. He now spends time in the nursery with other little chimps. 

Each day, a trained member of staff acts as his surrogate mother, providing him with care and comfort and helping him recover from the trauma of being separated from his mother.

Eventually, Mo will be integrated into a larger chimp troop at the sanctuary and live in a semi-wild environment in a protected area of the forest.

Tree planting in Bafawahun. Photos: SLEM

Restoring harmony between humans and wildlife

Mo’s rescue was a turning point for many local people. In Kotomahun and four neighbouring communities, residents began taking action to tackle human–wildlife conflict by restoring habitats.

With the support of GLFx, we’ve now started planting trees in the communities of Bafawahun, Diama, Nekabo and Kotomahun.

By the end of 2025, we aim to have finished planting 10,000 trees across three communities. These trees include the African oil nut tree (Ricinodendron heudelotii), sandpaper fig (Ficus exasperata), English monkey apple (Anisophyllea laurina), Khaya senegalensis, silk cotton tree (Ceiba pentandra) and wild guava (Careya arborea). 

Half of these trees bear fruit, so they will eventually provide food for wildlife, help restore degraded forest lands and prevent chimpanzees from feasting on farmers’ crops. 

Over time, we hope reforesting the Kambui Hills will heal the fractured relationship between humans, the chimpanzees and the forest.

At the same time, we’re working to educate local communities about the environment, helping farmers understand why chimpanzees and monkeys raid their farms and ways they can step up to help save these animals and their crops. 

Now these communities know they can call us or the Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary for help anytime if their crops are raided or if a chimpanzee needs rescuing. 

We also support local initiatives like community gardens, where families grow staples such as sweet potatoes, cassava and vegetables. These gardens are located in the villages and provide a vital source of food, especially for households who might otherwise struggle during difficult periods.

Human–wildlife conflict in Sierra Leone is not simply a farming issue; it is a story of survival, resilience and the urgent need to protect ecosystems.

The future of the Kambui Hills hinges upon our choices today: do we continue down the path of destruction, or do we commit to restoration? 

When I look at the new seedlings taking root in Bafawahun, I hear my grandfather’s voice echoing in the distance: “Every living thing matters.”