Project Sapling is a pilot project in Sierra Leone to develop and test the methodology for supporting large-scale community-driven reforestation.
Deforestation remains a challenging problem, exemplified by Sierra Leone’s loss of more than 30% of its tree cover since 2000 and scant funds with which to create new forests. At COP26, the Government of Sierra Leone committed to planting 25 million trees by 2030 over 960,000 HA.
hectares drone mapped
trees planted
planters
About the project
Project Sapling will run in north-eastern Sierra Leone, where the team has partnered with local conservation and community development organization, Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary (TCS).
It will develop, test and apply new programmatic and technological approaches to support large-scale sustainable reforestation, linking local communities as custodians of the new forests they replant and advanced drone technology for monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV).
With each planted tree geo-tagged and monitored by long range drones, the result will see a remotely accessible verification mechanism that will end uncertainties that have marred investments in carbon offsets in rural Africa, where monitoring can be both costly and infrequent, making for challenges in visibility.
