Good practice

Gola Rainforest REDD+ Project (Sierra Leone)

Sierra Leone · Kenema · See the Sierra Leone profile

West Africa's only REDD+ national park project: 71,070 ha of Upper Guinea rainforest, protecting 19 Mt CO2 and reducing ~500,000 tCO2e/yr. VCS + CCBA certified; RSPB, Government of Sierra Leone and Conservation Society of Sierra Leone co-manage with 7 Gola chiefdoms.

71,070 ha

Floresta tropical protegida

19M tCO2

Carbono protegido

~500,000 tCO2e/yr

Reduções de emissões anuais

Gola Rainforest REDD+ Project (Sierra Leone)

Details

Maturity: Established
Promoter: RSPB / Conservation Society of Sierra Leone
Period: 2013-present
Keywords: Tropical rainforest, carbon, biodiversity, REDD+

Context

O Projeto REDD+ da Floresta de Gola protege floresta tropical da Alta Guiné na Serra Leoa, cogerida pela RSPB, pelo Governo da Serra Leoa, pela Conservation Society of Sierra Leone e por sete chefaturas de Gola, e está certificado ao abrigo das normas Verra VCS e CCBA.

Results

Abrange 71.070 ha, protegendo 19 milhões de tCO2 de carbono armazenado e reduzindo cerca de 500.000 tCO2e por ano.

Implementation

Implementation detail (cost, timeline, staffing, conditions for success) is not yet available for this practice.

Data sources

Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.

C-NAPSE web research — accessed 2026-06-20
RSPB / Conservation Society of Sierra Leone — accessed 2026-06-20
Gola REDD+ Project – official site — accessed 2026-06-20
RSPB – Gola Rainforest programme page — accessed 2026-06-20
Climate Impact Partners – Gola Sierra Leone — accessed 2026-06-20
Mongabay – wildlife recovery in Sierra Leone (May 2026) — accessed 2026-06-20

Attachments

Source image

Quality score: 67/100

How is this calculated?

Evidence: Observational / pre–post

Top 8% in this catalogue (335 scored practices)

Scores cluster high, so position within the catalogue is often more telling than the number alone.

Evaluation

Evaluated by C-NAPSE

Score profile — the dimensions behind the score — how it's computed

Carbon — sequestration / storage, evidenced3/3

VCS-verified avoided deforestation: ~500,000 tCO2e/yr quantified over a 30-year project period, with 19 million tonnes stored in standing forest per RSPB and golarainforest.org official figures.

Biodiversity — conservation / improvement, evidenced3/3

CCBA-certified; 300+ bird species, 14 globally threatened; 47 large mammals; critically endangered chimpanzees and pygmy hippopotamus; Upper Guinea Forest biodiversity hotspot; community co-management across 7 chiefdoms.

Water & soil — retention, infiltration, erosion control1/3

Upper Guinea forest provides watershed and soil-retention functions for downstream communities, but no independent hydrology or sedimentation measurement is reported in project documentation.

Fire resilience — risk reduction, evidenced0/3

Tropical rainforest ecosystem; no fire management component documented in project materials; wildfire is not a primary threat or measured outcome for this project.

Governance, certification & transferability3/3

VCS + CCBA double certification; three-party management (Government of Sierra Leone, RSPB, CSSL); community benefit-sharing across 7 chiefdoms; 30-year legal framework with annual independent verification.

Cite this

Evidoria. Gola Rainforest REDD+ Project (Sierra Leone). Persistent ID: 334c4b67-8b11-487f-a234-b7bed32c416b.

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