Sierra Leone goes to war against industrial projects that do not respect the environment

Sierra Leone is a land of predators. In its basement, there is gold, titanium, diamonds. The infamous “blood diamonds” that fueled civil wars in West Africa in particular. It is also a place where it is easy to produce palm oil. But on this land lives a very rural population, poorly educated, among the poorest on the planet. A situation that necessarily attracts highwaymen allied with multinational gemstone companies that are not always very scrupulous. It is easy for them to trick the inhabitants to obtain prospecting rights without their consent.

The power wants to put an end to all this with a law which requires those who want to prospect to obtain, beforehand, the agreement of the communities that own the land. An agreement which, until then, was largely exceeded, harming the local populations.

The veto power of Sierra Leoneans is accompanied by financial assistance. They will be assisted by the State in all the steps taken to put an end to an exploitation. The legal proceedings but also the management of all the counter-expertise they wish to carry out to bring down a mining company. Devices hailed by both associations for the defense of human rights and environmental NGOs. They consider that these texts are the most protective in the world in this area.

This device is also beneficial for the environment because the search for minerals such as gold is a highly polluting industry. Palm oil plantations involve the razing of large areas of tropical forests. If the populations are informed of all this before giving up their land, they will multiply the vetoes.

But already, large international companies are gloomy and warn: they will give up setting up in the country. They will invest less in extraction. In Sierra Leone, diamonds may be forever, but the days of predators seem numbered.