By Kemo Cham
Sierra Leone’s premiere Chimpanzee sanctuary, Tacugama, on Monday announced that it had shut down its doors to visitors in protest against government’s inaction to protect the wildlife refuge.
Tacugama, located in a forest reserve called the Western Area Peninsular National Park, which is just outside the capital city of Freetown, is home to over 100 chimps rescued from captivity. The approximately 100 acres of forest has been under persist attack by encroachers desiring to build dwelling homes or merely in search of bush meat.
Bala Amarasekaran, the Programme Director of Tacugama, founded it in 1995 as a place to rehabilitate the animals rescued from captivity. Three decades of his dedication culminated to the government declaring Chimpanzee as the National Animal of Sierra Leone. That move in 2019 came with promises of protection by the government.
Subsequently, the ministry of Lands declared the area a Tourism Development Area (TDA), which placed it under the control of the Ministry of Tourism, with management functions in the hands of Tacugama.
But the management of the sanctuary says that landmark decision is yet to be backed by concrete action, as the encroachers continue to infiltrate it unabated. And some of the culprits are said to be influential people in society, including government officials.
A spokesman for Tacugama said that some of the encroachers go into the forest to hunt mainly on a “destructively subsistent scale,” primarily for food but also hoping to catch something big enough to be of market value, like giant cane rats, duikers, monkeys and birds.
“The western area peninsula is also home to at least one large chimpanzee troop, so hunters would definitely catch them if they get the chance. Every so often we hear gunshots in the dead of night, and our rangers have come across bullet casings on several occasions,” Sidikie Bayoh, Communication Officer of Tacugama, said in a whatsapp message to ManoReporters.
Sierra Leone was once home to a large population of chimpanzees. Some estimates put the number at over 20,000. But since the end of country’s civil war, the number of the great apes have dramatically declined due to many factors, notably hunting and loss of habitat as a result of deforestation.
There are presently an estimated 5,000 chimpanzees in the wild nationwide, according to wildlife campaigners, who say the animals are constantly subjected to anthropogenic threats like poaching and deforestation, consequently shrinking their homes and numbers. Tacugama provides care and support for the animals, with the goal of releasing them into the wild when they can fend for themselves. But the sanctuary says it hasn’t been able to do that as it hasn’t identified any locations safe enough, mainly due to the possibility of human-wildlife conflict.
Mr Amarasekaran told ManoReporters back in November last year that after decades of hard work to make Tacugama the Number One Echo-Tourism destination in Sierra Leone, he was tired of running after land grabbers who are constantly trying to encroach into the place.
He said that all the decisions taken by the government were still just on paper, without action.
“We have beautiful laws, but if they are not implemented it is a waste of time of the people who have made these laws,” he said.
With no action from the government, in February this year the management of the sanctuary warned that it would be shut down by the end of May if still no action was taken.
“The whole idea behind this action is to prompt the government to act swiftly and definitively, we want to see the concerns that we have about the park become a national concern with full backing from all government bodies concerned,” Bayoh, the spokesman, said in his whatsapp message responding to a request for further clarification.
When asked what they intend to do if the government doesn’t act soon enough to this latest development, Mr Bayoh said:
“In the unfortunate event that the government doesn’t act, it wouldn’t be too long before the sanctuary stops existing, because we have already witnessed fire incidents quite close to some of our enclosures. So if no action is taken, it means such vital environmental spaces will only fade out of existence. What we’re advocating for here really goes far beyond the sanctuary.”
