The Republic of Sierra Leone is located on the West Coast of Africa, between latitudes 7 and 10 north and longitudes 10.5 and 13 west. The country has 560 km of coastline and a land area of 72,300 km2. It borders Guinea to the north and northeast, Liberia to the south and southeast, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west. The country’s 560 km long coastline has a continental shelf with a width of 100 km in the north and 15 km wide in the south. The coastline is also very irregular in formation (Figure 1) forming many bays and peninsulas. Freshwater swamps and mangrove swamps occupy large extents of the coastline, and the coastal plain is characterized with many estuaries. Sierra Leone’s wetlands extend for over 500 km along the country’s western coast bordering the Atlantic Ocean. This coastal landscape is characterized by an extensive network of estuaries, which include the Scarcies River Estuary (44.4 km2), Sierra Leone River Estuary (2,950 km2), Yawri Bay (295 km2.), and the Sherbro River Estuary (283.54 km2). These estuaries are fed by a network of rivers that originate in the mountain ranges of northern Sierra Leone and central Guinea.
Shellfish harvesting in Sierra Leone is under the general fisheries regulations and is managed in principle by the Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources. Some management responsibilities are officially delegated by these authorities to resource users in co-management arrangements. The management of mangrove forests on the other hand is under the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Food Security and an authority under the ministry, the National Protected Areas Authority (NPAA). The current study assesses the scale and scope of shellfisheries and shellfish-based livelihoods connected with mangrove systems and coastal water bodies in Sierra Leone through a participatory approach. The main objectives were the identification of key stakeholders and assessment of the scale and scope of existing shellfisheries and shellfish-based livelihoods in mangrove systems or its related water bodies. This study complements a Literature Review (Chuku et. al., 2020) covering shellfisheries in each of the 11 coastal West Africa countries from Senegal to Nigeria.
