Forests and woodlands cover nearly one-third of the earth's total land surface. The wood, fuel, food, and income they provide are basic to the well being, even the very survival, of hundreds of millions of people. Yet, of the entire world's natural resources, forests and woodlands are perhaps the most neglected, and are being depleted at an alarming rate. Sierra Leone, which reportedly had about half of its total land area under moist tropical lowland forest in the 1500s, is no exception to this global trend.

The more widely acknowledged causes of biodiversity loss in Sierra Leone include shifting cultivation, lumbering, and wildfires. Previous efforts at forest conservation have tended to focus on remedying these causes. However, in addition to these traditional causes, civil war has become a serious threat to biodiversity in recent years, both by virtue of its own inherent destructive capacity, and its domino effect on other related causes of biodiversity loss. Yet to date, little attention has been focused on the impacts of the recent civil war on the country's biodiversity. This oversight may be explained by the fact that attempts to resolve the conflict have yet to yield a total cessation of hostilities, which would facilitate on-site assessment of impacts. Against this background this study attempts to piece together the information available from varied sources on the impacts of the civil war on biodiversity loss.

This qualitative study considers that significant civil war-related biodiversity loss has occurred, and underscores the need for detailed on-site assessments of these impacts as soon as normality returns and areas are accessible, and the need to formulate strategies for mitigating negative impacts. A number of conceptual weaknesses have characterized national conservation efforts, and attempts should be made to remedy these. Funding levels for conservation activities have always been low, which tends to limit the programs undertaken. This situation must be reversed if credible conservation programs are to be successfully implemented.