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1. A methodology paper is available on
intrusions due to decreased lowwater flows in the dry season.
Because of all these characteristics the coastal zone of the
country is particularly vulnerable to climate change impact.
This report provides a description of the coastal and
marine environment of Sierra Leone as well as the
oceanography of its coastal waters. The report further deals
with the pressures and impacts of anthropogenic activities
that directly affect the quality of the coastal and marine
environment, such as fishing, shipping, ports and harbour
development, submarine cable and pipelines, off shore
hydrocarbon exploration and exploitation, other marine
based energy industries and offshore mining industries. It
looks at other uses of ocean space such as waste disposal/
discharge, marine debris, tourism and recreation, and the
potential impacts of climate change and sea level rise.
The report also provides a qualitative assessment of the state
of the coastal and marine habitats as well as the current and
future risks to the marine environment. The assessment is
the result of the national workshop for production of the
National State of the Coast Report, which was organized
in Freetown, Sierra Leone from 4–7 February 2014. The
methodology used at the workshop was based upon expert
elicitation1 (annex 1) to assess the state of the marine
environment in Sierra Leone. A total of 50 scientists and
experts from Sierra Leone attended the workshop. The
workshop was organized by the Environment Protection
Agency of Sierra Leone, in cooperation with the Abidjan
Convention and under the guidance of experts from
GRID-Arendal.
The qualitative assessment of marine and coastal habitats
showed that most habitats are still in good and very good
condition, and the trend during the last 5 years has been
stable. A total of 13 habitat types were assessed. Condition
of the seabed habitat of the inner shelf zones are believed
to be improving. This is related to restrictions on bottom
trawling which were implemented in recent years.
A total of 29 biodiversity parameters (species and species
groups) were assessed. On average, biodiversity is assessed
to be still in good condition for most places. Some species
and species groups have strongly declined during the past
5 years, and are in poor condition: shark and rays, some
bird species such as terns, demersal fish assemblages,
small pelagic fish species and crustaceans. Declines in fish
stocks can be attributed to overfishing.
It can be assumed that the ecological functioning of the
marine ecosystem along the coast of Sierra Leone is still
largely intact, as large stretches of the coast and marine
zone are unexploited and undeveloped with limited
pressures on the marine ecosystem. Two ecological
processes have been assessed: spatial and physical
disjunctions and biological migration processes. Spatial/
physical disjunctions are still in good condition as
infrastructures (ports etc.) which impact the coastal and
marine environment are still limited.
The condition of 16 physical and chemical processes has
been assessed. On average, condition of physical and
chemical processes, which are important to support marine