The Tacugama Community Outreach Programme has been moving ahead in leaps and bounds recently and last week delivered 42 goats to rural communities in the Moyamba, Tonkolili and Port Loko districts. The goats are part of our Sustainable and Alternative Livelihoods project that supports wildlife conservation by providing people with alternatives to environmentally destructive activities such as bushmeat hunting.

Bushmeat hunting, the hunting of any wild species for meat, is the most serious immediate threat to wildlife, including apes and monkeys, in West and Central Africa. There is a growing international trade in bushmeat but a significant amount of bushmeat hunting is still undertaken by poor rural communities simply trying to provide protein and income for their families. Although hunting has been part of human culture for millennia, as forest habitats disappear and human population increase, the levels of hunting have become unsustainable. This not only poses a serious ecological threat but a grave danger to the food security of rural people.

One part of our project addresses these issues by initiating livestock husbandry in rural communities. We are training community members in goat husbandry, assisting in the construction of pens and providing a starter herd of six animals, a buck and five does. This should provide a long-term, sustainable source of protein and income for rural communities and ultimately reduce levels of bushmeat hunting.

Getting to this stage has not been an easy task and has involved months of training and planning. First of all the Outreach Team underwent comprehensive goat husbandry training for trainers and then put together a detailed training package ready to deliver to the communities.The training package explains the philosophy of the project, includes detailed animal care procedures and step-by-step instructions for suitable pen construction.

Goat husbandry training

Looking at the floor plans for the goat pens

Next the Outreach Team set off around the districts delivering the training package and initiating pen construction.

Goat pen construction

The finished goat house

Finally it came to goat delivery and, after acquiring and inoculating the initial 42 animals, we distributed them to the awaiting communities.

Some of the goats being delivered to their new home

One of the goats being inoculated

It was a great feeling to finally deliver the goats to their new, specially designed homes and newly trained owners but the work doesn’t stop here. The programme will continue to assist the communities to manage and grow their herds and will be on hand to assist with any necessary veterinary care.

Goats in their new home

Livestock husbandry is just one of many projects that the Community Outreach Programme is working towards. Our other projects include assistance with efficient agricultural techniques, establishment of swamp rice plantations and community latrine construction. Up coming plans include planting of community vegetable gardens and taking the first steps towards reforestation of community lands. We are currently partnered with 18 communities over three of the 12 districts of Sierra Leone and will be partnering with a further 15 communities very soon. For more information on our communities, activities and goals see the Community Outreach Programme webpage.

We have been supported for much of this initial work by the African Minerals environmental programme and are grateful for their commitment to the programme.