FESS Issue Brief June 2007

Key Points Improving Environmental Security in • In Sierra Leone, the use of Sierra Leone: The Importance of Land diamond revenues to fuel civil war has Reclamation ceased, but the environmental and socioeconomic effects of 75 years of Kelley Lubovich and Ellen Suthers artisanal diamond mining remain. Vast Foundation for Environmental Security and Sustainability expanses of land have been stripped of topsoil, churned up, and abandoned, leaving the land barren and useless. The link between environmental degradation and human insecurity is This unproductive land represents a starkly evident in Sierra Leone, one of the world’s poorest countries. As in significant loss of potentially valuable much of the developing world, many Sierra Leoneans depend on agricultural production and livelihoods. land-based livelihoods, including farming, fishing, forestry, and hunting. However, years of intensive mining in the country’s diamondiferous • Despite diminishing returns, regions have resulted in many abandoned sites that have left large tracts thousands of diggers expose of degraded land. In addition to the enormous health and safety risks themselves daily to serious health and posed by the abandoned pits, the unproductive land represents a safety hazards in artisanal mining pits in the hopes of finding a diamond that significant loss of potentially valuable agricultural land in this country might end their poverty. where rapid population growth is increasing the pressure for livelihoods, land, and food. The gap between the needs of the population and the • The revenues that government and availability of such necessities is becoming increasingly untenable. The traditional leaders collect from granting lens of environmental security allows us to see clearly how such a diamond mining licenses discourage situation can threaten the continued peace and stability of an already them from considering whether an area fragile state.1 would be better put to other uses. The environmental security perspective is especially useful in the Sierra • To date, the government has not Leonean context, as it allows us to examine the ways in which the social used the portion of mining license fees and environmental problems caused by land degradation in the country’s legally designated for land reclamation mined-out diamond producing areas have the potential to cause instability for its intended purpose nor has it in the absence of efforts to return the land to productive use. This Issue taken responsibility for ensuring that mined-out land is reclaimed. Brief argues that Sierra Leone must incorporate an environmental security approach into its post-conflict development strategy, specifically • FESS’s work in the artisanal by taking steps to decrease the negative impact of abandoned and mined- diamond mining areas of Sierra Leone out land on local communities. By doing this, the country will be not only has shown that land reclamation can addressing pressing environmental issues, but also enhancing the long- be successful, but it requires term viability of agricultural production and food security, thereby cooperation and commitment forged reducing the chances that conflict will resume. through extensive community consultations. To this end, the Foundation for Environmental Security and Sustainability (FESS), with funding from the Tiffany & Co. Foundation The government of Sierra Leone • and the United States Agency for International Development, is should signal its commitment to the implementing a project that addresses the challenge of reclaiming mined- well-being and security of diamond- mining communities by adopting out areas. Benefiting from the input and support of local communities, the policies in support of community-based FESS project is designed to return currently unusable land back to land reclamation as part of an productive use, thereby increasing the livelihood opportunities and integrated program of sustainable natural resources management. PAGE 2 FESS ISSUE BRIEF

Tradeoffs “Sierra Leone must incorporate an Continuous improvement in the country’s human security environmental security approach into its situation—which in Sierra Leone post-conflict development strategy, goes hand-in-hand with effective management of the country’s specifically by taking steps to decrease diamond resources and raising the living standards of miners the negative impact of abandoned and and their communities—will be essential to the future security of mined-out land on local communities. ” the country. However, despite the general awareness within agricultural yields in Although conflict diamonds are communities of the many hazards communities facing not currently a cause for concern associated with alluvial diamond environmental degradation and in Sierra Leone, the legacy of mining, thousands of diggers and food insecurity. diamond mining still represents a members of the surrounding potential threat to the stability of communities expose themselves to Background the country. Mining of alluvial increased health and safety risks In December 2006, Sierra Leone diamonds has left extensive areas every day. Laborers and mining and conflict diamonds were once of land both depleted of minerals communities suffer from high again thrust into the and unproductive for other incidences of drowning and international spotlight, thanks to purposes. And, while it is disease brought on by human and the Hollywood film Blood important to acknowledge that animal waste that collects in Diamond. The film dramatizes diamonds can play a crucial role mining pits. Although malaria is the role diamonds played during in the development of Sierra a problem throughout the the civil war that raged in the Leone’s economy and thus in the country, the close proximity of country from 1991 to 2002 (diamonds both financed and fueled the conflict). In some ways, the attention drawn to the issue of conflict diamonds by the movie has been beneficial, especially in that it has raised public awareness of the accomplishments of and gaps in the Kimberley Process, which seeks to reduce the number of conflict diamonds in the world market.2 Despite some inadequacies in the Kimberley Process, governments, civil society, and diamond companies have done much to improve the traceability of gemstones. No one can be 100 percent certain of the origin of a stone; nevertheless, diamonds are no longer fueling Artisanal diamond mining pits and pools of water in Tankoro Chiefdom, Kono. armed conflict in Sierra Leone, and conflict diamonds are prevention of conflict driven by water-filled pits to human estimated to represent less than 1 economic need, unless mining settlements puts mining percent of diamonds on the world practices are changed, the side- communities at higher risk (IRG market (Partnership Africa effects may mean increased strife. 2005). Those working in and Canada n.d.). FESS ISSUE BRIEF PAGE 3 living near the pits also are with diggers, who can produce The situation appears to be more likely to be exposed to much environmental getting even worse, as agricul- schistosomiasis and typhoid. devastation in a short time tural output, which is growing before moving on to a newer site at 1.7 percent per year (FAO The physical environment also where stones have been 2004), is failing to keep up with has sustained extensive damage discovered (IRG 2005). These a rapidly growing population. as a result of mining. In Sierra in-migrations not only intensify Annual population growth is Leone, as elsewhere in West mining activity, but also bring reported to be between 3.5 per- Africa, the alluvial nature of large numbers of people whose cent (World Bank 2007) and 4.1 diamond occurrences and associated artisanal extractive practices contribute to “Over the more than 75 years since widespread environmental diamond mining began in Sierra Leone, degradation and loss of productive land surface. The vast expanses of land have been extensive and shallow riverine deposits containing diamonds stripped of topsoil, churned up, and are accessed easily by individuals using simple tools abandoned with virtually no efforts to such as shovels and pick axes. refill holes and render the land viable Over the more than 75 years since diamond mining began in for other purposes. ” Sierra Leone, vast expanses of land have been stripped of presence strains the already percent (United Nation topsoil, churned up, and aban- limited supply of food and Statistics Division n.d.). Such a doned with virtually no efforts to available land. Understandably, wide range may be due to the refill holes and render the land the government seeks revenues difficulty of collecting data in viable for other purposes. from mining licenses; however, Sierra Leone given the lingering Deforestation is accelerated as licenses are sometimes granted effects of war, the rugged topog- trees and vegetation are after diggers are already actively raphy, and the lack of adequate indiscriminately cut down for mining and without prior roads. Although agricultural fuel, shelter, and to clear the consideration as to whether the production has increased as area for excavation (IRG 2005). area is likely to have viable long- many Sierra Leoneans have In the case of commercial term extractive potential or would returned to their farms after the kimberlite mining, excess be better put to other uses (IRG conclusion of the civil war, the sediment from mining 2005). This cycle leads to an ever- country is still worse off than operations pollutes water and expanding stock of degraded land. before the war, as high food endangers the survival of imports and continued aquatic plants and fish species. Perhaps most importantly, in a dependence on food aid attest. Air pollution is also a problem, country with a severe food According to FAO (2000), prior as blasting and loosening of the security problem, diamond mining to 1990, Sierra Leone was earth kicks dust into the air, is destroying nutrient-rich soil almost food self-sufficient; creating respiratory problems. and taking it out of productive ag- indeed, the country had been a In some communities near the ricultural use. Sierra Leone’s net exporter of rice in the 1960s blasting sites, noise pollution growing population is already (Verheye 2000). Between 1998 has been so intense that it has unable to feed itself. In 2004, the and 2000, Sierra Leone imported forced schools to close. Food and Agricultural 50 percent of its total cereal Organization of the United consumption (WRI 2003). Part The environmental damage in Nations (FAO) estimated that 2.4 of the increase in imports may mining areas is exacerbated by million, or 50 percent, of Sierra be explained by the fact that recurrent “gold rushes.” Leoneans were undernourished some farmers switched from Whenever a new area is found to (FAO 2004). producing rice to producing roots contain stones, it soon swarms and tubers during the war; in any case, the reality remains PAGE 4 FESS ISSUE BRIEF that Sierra Leone is largely damage, diamond mining will Broken Promises dependent on other countries to continue in Sierra Leone well Technically, everyone from feed its population.3 into the future. This will artisanal miners to corporate inevitably mean greater operators are required by law to Despite these problems, environmental damage if the remediate the land, but the pits however, it is easy to consequences of mining are not left behind when miners move understand the country’s adequately addressed. on speak to a different reality. continued attachment to This is a huge problem for diamond mining. For In order to ensure the continued Sierra Leone, where three- desperately poor people, peace and development of Sierra quarters of the country is cur- diamonds carry a certain Leone, the country must balance rently undergoing some type of mystique related to the dream, mining, which brings in badly mineral exploration (IRIN News or the illusion, that anyone can needed foreign exchange, with 2006).4 Not all of the land under get lucky, find a big stone, and other economic activities. mineral exploration or become rich. More practically, Although Sierra Leone is exploitation is ideal farmland; along with bauxite and rutile, attempting to diversify its however, those areas that are diamond exports make up the economy, in the near term it will amenable to agricultural primary source of hard currency have to rely primarily on production must be made earnings and investment in the agriculture, as the industrial farmable again if Sierra Leone is nation. Prior to the civil war, sector is very small and unable to tackle the problem of feeding diamond exports accounted for to generate much income or its citizens. Putting this land 70 percent of foreign exchange absorb a significant amount of back into agricultural use is one earnings (River Diamonds labor. This situation will only important way that Sierra 2004). Neither agriculture nor increase in urgency, given that Leone can provide jobs for the bauxite and rutile mining have the rapidly expanding massive numbers of unemployed fully recovered since the war; population will require more youth who represent a potential accordingly, diamonds still food and livelihood opportunities threat to the stability of the represent the lion’s share of in the years to come. country. Sierra Leone’s export earnings.

Since the conclusion of the civil “As productivity declines at a site, war and the inception of the Kimberley Process, Sierra diggers create deeper and wider pits Leone’s legitimate diamond export earnings have increased and trenches, hoping that more from nearly nothing in 2001 to intensive activities will yield more more than US$140 million in 2005 (PAC 2006). In its diamonds, thus exacerbating the long- southeastern region, Sierra Leone has an estimated 7,700 term negative consequences for the square miles of diamondiferous land (Kanu 2006). Although environment and human well-being.” there are signs that many areas are no longer producing the Additionally, the country can no Converting mined-out, pitted quantity of alluvial diamonds longer sustain its over-reliance land is a difficult, expensive, that they once did, new areas on food imports, which robs it of and time-consuming task. As are coming into production. In foreign exchange—money that is for the estimated 120,000 to Kono District, four more chief- badly needed for other priorities 150,000 artisanal miners, who doms have recently been de- such as health, education, and on average barely make two clared diamondiferous. It is transportation. Expanding the dollars per day, requiring them clear that despite the associated agricultural capacity of the to spend their time filling in problems, including poor country will be essential to holes without compensation working conditions, health and national development. raises both practical and ethical safety issues, and environmental

FESSFESS ISSUEISSUE BRIEFBRIEF PAGE 5PAGE 5 questions. For each artisanal stimulate the post-war economy reclamation that requires mining license, the government through foreign and national significant levels of community levies a fee, a percentage of investment in the mining sector. commitment and support in which is earmarked for land reclamation activities. However, it is clear that the government has neither used this money as “For a land reclamation project to be intended nor taken successful there must be buy-in from responsibility for reclaiming mined-out land. Additionally, the entire community, including the government is doing little to ensure that corporations everyone from the chiefs to the operating in the country are diggers.” fulfilling their environmental obligations. Eager to attract and keep investors, the Undoubtedly, some of this diamond mining areas where government has little incentive exploration will lead to new institutional resources are to pressure large-scale mining finds of diamonds, rutile, limited. operators to carry out land bauxite, and gold. Although reclamation projects. most of the new operations will Economic hardship involve large-scale deep mining Sierra Leone is ranked 176th on Regardless of who carries out rather than alluvial mining, the 2006 UNDP Human reclamation, it is essential that land degradation will be an Development Index. This makes some effort be made to restore issue in these cases as well. If the country the second poorest the long-term environmental the current pattern holds, this in the world, after Niger (UNDP viability and productivity of increased mining activity will 2006). Such grinding poverty mined-out land. Increasing the create an additional need for gives thousands of diggers a food supply and putting people land reclamation, as more of the strong incentive to continue back to work will go a long way country’s agricultural land is mining—even on land that is no toward ensuring that Sierra mined and degraded. longer productive. From Leone remains peaceful. The discussions with local people in government must start now to At the same time that new diamond mining communities, it take active steps to increase mines are being brought into is clear that the prospect of agricultural production while production, many old mining finding just one more diamond is decreasing the health and sites remain unproductive and enough to keep people going environmental impacts of thus apt for reclamation. back to areas that in the past mining. In doing so, it will Despite the urgent need, have been known to yield ensure that the benefits the however, land reclamation and diamonds. Much like the hope country gains from mining are alternative use projects are of winning the lottery, there is a not outweighed by the impeded by a number of strong belief among miners that environmental damage and obstacles. The sheer quantity of finding one large diamond will subsequent food insecurity that land in need of reclamation is be enough to provide for their extensive land destruction will daunting. Moreover, there are families well into the future. bring. multiple interrelated forces that However, for most laborers their present challenges for project returns amount to little more Challenges to Moving planning and implementation, than a few cups of rice and Forward with Reclamation including the economic either a small wage or the and Alternative Use Projects pressures facing rural mining promise of a share in future The fact that 75 percent of the communities; sociocultural and earnings; they never score the country is currently under legal structures that create big one. Even when they find a mineral exploration is, in part, a unfavorable incentives to cease substantial diamond, diggers result of strategic efforts by the mining; and the need for an often get cheated because they Sierra Leonean government to integrated approach to land have limited or no knowledge of PAGE 6 FESS ISSUE BRIEF the monetary value of diamonds has declined, or even ceased, the contributing to the destruction on the global market. tendency is to either continue of potentially productive land digging long after the site is surface by creating perverse Compounding these problems is virtually depleted of alluvial incentive structures for those the fact that diamond-producing diamonds or to abandon the site with the authority to oversee the areas act as magnets for and resume digging in it after a industry. Specifically, the migrant workers from other period of a few years. The incentive structure built into the

Case Study: Kaisambo In some places, reclamation is complicated by more than just theoretical questions about differing perspectives within communities. There is also genuine skepticism on the part of mining communities with regard to reclamation activities, as some previous attempts have gone awry. Kaisambo is a mining site in the Koidu area in Kono District that was designated to undergo a land reclamation project. The reclamation work was to require heavy machinery and therefore could be expected to be an expensive endeavor. Nevertheless, the choice of company was based on the lowest bid, and sources indicate that the selected company aggressively underbid to win the contract. The company ran out of money well before the project was finished, and there are varying accounts as to why this happened. Some observers say that the company had spent so much of its budget on payoffs to win the contract that there was little left for moving the earth. To make matters worse, people began re-mining the site. As the project was perceived to be a failure, and no broad-based community consultations had been held prior to the start of the project, it is a sore point in the area. One lesson of the project is the necessity of seeking community input. Had this project been bid fairly and awarded to the most qualified bidder, and also featured a community consultation phase, perhaps there would have been greater agreement as to whether the land was in fact mined-out. Because the project was begun without broad-based community consultation, it was viewed skeptically from the start, which undermined community support and a sense of local ownership for the project and may have, in turn, contributed to the re-mining of the site. parts of Sierra Leone and persistence of the diggers, licensing system encourages the neighboring countries. Many of driven by economic hardship, is proliferation of artisanal mining these laborers have tenuous, if bolstered in some cases by the sites because paramount chiefs any, ties to the mining local belief that diamonds are have both final authority to communities in which they work slowly but constantly working approve artisanal mining and, consequently, relatively their way to the earth’s surface. licenses and a financial stake in little investment in or concern Individuals desperate to sustain the number of licenses granted. for the long-term impact of their themselves, and others eager to A percentage of each license fee mining practices. Their primary reap the benefits of diamonds, goes directly to the chiefs and a motivation is to feed themselves tend to show reluctance to give percentage of the diamond and their families. up on a once-productive site and export revenues obtained by the declare it mined-out, because government is given to As productivity declines at a there is always the chance that communities through the site, diggers create deeper and the site will yield one more Diamond Areas Community wider pits and trenches, hoping valuable diamond. Development Fund. According that more intensive activities to Lansana Gberie, a frequent will yield more diamonds, thus Built-in incentive structures writer on the subject of the exacerbating the long-term work against reclamation diamond mining sector in Sierra negative consequences for the Laws, policies, and customary Leone, 0.75 percent of the export environment and human well- practices governing artisanal value of the diamonds is being. Even where productivity mining in Sierra Leone are redistributed to chiefdoms

FESS ISSUE BRIEF PAGE 7 through the Fund in direct identify a tract of land, declare it • Concerns as to whether a proportion to the number of mined-out, and make it particular reclamation pro- mining licenses in a chiefdom available for reclamation. ject would serve to further (Gberie 2002). Aside from the Reaching this point may be the community’s interests, problems of misappropriation, difficult, as there may be divisions given a history of mismanagement, and low and conflicting ideas within a unsustained efforts by institutional capacities that community regarding the various donor agencies in plague the Fund, the conflicts of feasibility and implementation of the region. interest generated by this reclamation. system tend to ensure the For a land reclamation project to continued granting of licenses, Some potential points of be successful, there must be even in mined-out areas and contention may involve: buy-in from the entire locations where continued community, including everyone digging threatens the • Divergent opinions about the from the chiefs to the diggers. environment. relative advantages and This requirement brings its own disadvantages of mining challenges, given the diversity Once the licenses have been versus other livelihood and complexity of relationships granted, there also is an activities, such as cultivation. within communities, the oversight problem, namely the lack of capacity of the Ministry of Mineral Resources to implement and monitor the situation at the numerous mine sites across the country. According to Gberie, the Ministry has been chronically neglected by the government. For instance, in 2002, the Ministry did not have a single official vehicle. Additionally, Mines Monitors are poorly paid and lack oversight, which encourages corruption and saps their motivation. The consequent lax enforcement of site mining bans means that sites can be re-mined without consequence to the diggers, a situation with adverse implications for the prospects of Men and women work to reclaim mined-out land in Nimikoro Chiefdom, Kono. reclamation. importance of including all

• Conflicting points of view stakeholders in decision making, Land reclamation requires coop- about whether a given parcel and the need to avoid eration on many levels of land is actually mined-out, reinforcing unequal power To undertake a land reclamation meaning that the land has relations (Cheney et al. 2002). project, there are a number of been exhaustively mined of All members of a community potential obstacles to overcome. diamonds. must anticipate benefiting in First, community members must • Competing interests some way from the project, or agree that discontinuing all regarding how the land may there is a risk that individuals mining activity in an area and be used and benefits who feel otherwise will reshaping the land for an distributed once it is undermine the effort and alternative use is a worthwhile reclaimed. possibly even begin re-mining endeavor. The community must the reclaimed area. To

FESS ISSUE BRIEF PAGE 8 overcome this obstacle, it is they commit to Foundation and core funding necessary to demonstrate that terminating the issuance of from the United States Agency land proposed for reclamation mining licenses for the land for International Development, has potential value as a site for in question? has developed a project that in- agricultural production. • Will it be possible to volves communities in diamond pressure larger mining en- mining areas in a program to In addition to the sociocultural terprises to use best mining recapture land otherwise lost to issues surrounding land practices to rehabilitate and environmental degradation from reclamation projects, there are restore land to its artisanal diamond mining. also key practical questions that pre-mining condition in FESS is employing a model of must be addressed by any land order to allow for alternative implementation that is reclamation effort, including: uses? community-based, community- • Who will be responsible for directed, and community- • Who owns the land in financing these projects? monitored. This model is question? (Sierra Leonean land tenure systems vary from one district or community to another, based in part on cultural traditions, and can involve overlapping systems that operate simultaneously). • How will the land that is to be reclaimed be identified, and who will have a say in choosing the site? • Whose cooperation is necessary to ensure that, once an alternative use is established for the reclaimed land, this will be a sustainable and productive activity? • What is necessary to Workers head home after a day of reclaiming land in Bompeh. ensure that a community’s commitment is sustainable These questions all come back to designed to give a deep sense of over a period long enough the central issue of community local ownership from the outset, to see tangible benefits of buy-in and ownership. Without avoiding some of the pitfalls land reclamation, e.g., the support and active common to projects that are through one or more participation of the people most designed and implemented by agricultural cycles, that affected by land reclamation outside experts. Although the will contribute to greater projects, these efforts are likely to FESS project is in progress and sustainability? fail. not yet fully evaluated, it ap- • Who will be responsible for pears likely that the model can monitoring the site over its Making Land Reclamation a be adapted by other lifespan? How will it be Reality communities around the country monitored? To address the many challenges to to meet their specific needs as • How much support will the undertaking land reclamation in they reclaim land for alternative mining sector and the Sierra Leone, the Foundation for uses. Ministry of Mineral Environmental Security and Resources offer the Sustainability (FESS), with a Designed to maximize local reclamation project? Will grant from the Tiffany & Co. leadership and involvement, a PAGE 9 FESS ISSUE BRIEF crucial early component of the in Sierra Leone. Because the rely heavily on food imports and FESS project was a series of project benefits from the input, donations to feed its population. consultative meetings and support, and commitment of the Food insecurity resulting in part workshops held in diamond communities in which the from extensive environmental mining areas that are in clear reclamation activities are taking damage from decades of mining, need of reclamation. Two-day place, this model has the combined with high workshops held in Koidu and in potential to enable citizens of unemployment and corruption, Tongo Fields in February 2007 artisanal mining communities to could propel Sierra Leone into brought together local leaders, lift themselves out of poverty as renewed conflict. government representatives, and they take active steps to im- civil society groups to discuss the prove the management of their By adopting an environmental issues surrounding land natural resources and security perspective that reclamation activities and to environment. recognizes the links between assess local interest in and improper mining, environmental capacities for undertaking a land Conclusion damage, food insecurity, and reclamation project. Each set of Sierra Leone is facing serious conflict, the government of meetings ended with signed challenges. The country’s Sierra Leone may be able to commitments from local economic, physical, and social institute policies that avert this stakeholders pledging their infrastructures were severely threat. A top priority should be support and assistance for a damaged by the civil war, leav- to change the structure of project to be undertaken in their ing the majority of the popula- incentives that now favors land communities. tion to fend for themselves and degradation by encouraging their families. Too often, this continued digging in already By March 2007, three means attempting to eke out a degraded areas. The government demonstration sites selected by living from artisanal mining, of Sierra Leone should signal its local communities were which not only does little to alle- commitment to development and demarcated, and work is well viate endemic poverty in the to the well-being and security of underway to reclaim the land long run, but also damages the the population by adopting an and prepare it for agricultural environment upon which 60 explicit and sustained production by early summer percent of the population relies commitment to land reclamation 2007. Although challenges are for their livelihoods (FAO 2007). as part of an integrated program expected along the way, FESS of sustainable management of believes that this project will be Food insecurity is a severe natural resources and the successful and a positive step problem today, as it has been environment.■ toward increasing livelihood since the beginning of the civil options, improving food security, war. Despite the end of the and protecting the environment conflict, the country continues to PAGE 10 FESS ISSUE BRIEF

Endnotes

______1. FESS defines environmental security as a condition in which a nation or region, through sound governance, capable management, and sustainable utilization of its natural resources and environment, takes effective steps toward creating social, economic, and political stability and ensuring the welfare of its population. 2. The Kimberley Process began in May 2000 when the government of South Africa brought together industry, NGOs, and governments to discuss the problem of conflict diamonds. The outcome was the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme, which officially went into effect in January 2003. Despite shortcomings in the area of enforcement mechanisms and independent monitoring, the Kimberley Process has been credited with bringing the number of conflict diamonds in the world market down from a high of 15 percent to the current level of less than 1 percent (PAC [n.d.]). 3. During the civil war, farmers all but ceased growing cereals and rice because of their susceptibility to looting. Instead, they grew tubers, such as cassava, which require fewer inputs and are not easily looted. 4. Three-quarters of the country is under mineral exploration, which can entail everything from conducting geological studies to engaging in artisanal, small-scale, or large-scale mining.

References

Cheney, Helen, Roy Lovel, and Fiona Solomon. 2002. People, power, participation: A study of mining–community relationships. http://www.natural-resources.org/minerals/cd/docs/mmsd/australia/finalreport/ppp-dsiro.pdf.

FAO. 2000. Special report: Crop and food supply situation in Sierra Leone. http://www.fao.org/docrep/004/x4425e/x4425e00.htm.

———. 2004. Food security statistics—Sierra Leone. http://www.fao.org/faostat/foodsecurity/Countries/EN/SierraLeone_e.pdf.

———. 2007. Sierra Leone. http://www.fao.org/ag/agl/aglw/aquastat/countries/sierra_leone/sierraleone_cp.pdf.

Gberie, Lansana. 2002. War and peace in Sierra Leone: Diamonds, corruption and the Lebanese connection. Diamonds and Human Security Project Occasional Paper no. 6. http://action.web.ca/home/pac/attach/sierraleone2002_e.pdf.

———. 2005. A dirty war in West Africa. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

———, ed. 2006. Diamond industry annual review. http://www.pacweb.org/e/images/stories/documents/annual%20review%20sl%202006.pdf.

Government of Sierra Leone. 2006. Progress report on the implementation of the programme of action for the least developed countries for decade 2001 to 2010. http://www.un.org/special-rep/ohrlls/ldc/MTR/Sierra%20Leone.pdf.

International Monetary Fund (IMF). 2005. Sierra Leone: Poverty reduction strategy paper. http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/scr/2005/cr05191.pdf.

International Resources Group (IRG). 2005. Programmatic environmental assessment. http://epiq2admin.web.aplus.net/pubs/sierra_leone_mining.pdf. FESS ISSUE BRIEF PAGE 11

IRIN News. 2006. Sierra Leone: Mining inspires hope, poses challenges. August 22. http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?reportid=60430.

Partnership Africa Canada. n.d. Diamonds, death and destruction. http://blooddiamond.pacweb.org/deathanddestruction/.

———. n.d. The Kimberley controls: How effective? http://blooddiamond.pacweb.org/kimberlyprocess/.

River Diamonds. 2004. Information on Sierra Leone. http://www.riverdiamonds.co.uk/sierra_description.htm.

UNDP. 2006. Human development index 2006. http://hdr.undp.org/hdr2006/statistics/.

UNSD. n.d. Population annual growth rate. http://unstats.un.org/unsd/cdb/cdb_yeras_on_top.asp?srID=13670&Ct1ID=&crID=694&yrI.

Verheye, Willy H. 2000. Food production or food aid? An African challenge. Finance and Development 37 (4). http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/2000/12/verheye.htm.

World Bank. 2007. Sierra Leone data profile. http://devdata.worldbank.org/external/CPProfile.asp?PTYPE=CP&CCODE=SLE.

———. n.d. Sierra Leone: Diagnostic trade integration study. World Bank Concept Note. http://www.integratedframework.org/files/SierraLeoneDTISConceptNote.pdf.

World Resources Institute. 2003. EarthTrends country profiles: Sierra Leone. http://earthtrends.wri.org/pdf_library/country_profiles/agr_cou_694.pdf.

PAGE 12 FESS ISSUE BRIEF

An online edition of this Issue Brief can be found at our website (www.fess-global.org).

The Foundation for Environmental Security and Sustainability (FESS) is a public policy foundation established to ad- vance knowledge and provide practical solutions for key environmental security concerns around the world. FESS combines empirical analysis with in-country research to construct policy-relevant analyses and program recommendations to address environmental conditions that pose risks to national, regional, and global security and stability.

Foundation For Environmental Security and Sustainability Ray Simmons, President 8110 Gatehouse Rd, Suite 101W Darci Glass-Royal, Executive Director Falls Church, VA 22042 Jeffrey Stark, Director of Research and Studies 703.560.8290 Max Castro, Associate Director of Research and Studies www.fess-global.org

The views expressed in this Issue Brief are those of the author, not the Foundation for Environmental Security and Sustainability, which is a nonpartisan public policy and research institution.

This report is made possible by the generous support of the American people through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The contents are the responsibility of the Foundation for Environmental Security and Sustainability and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the United States Government.

Rev. 8/8/2006