West Africa’s largest chimpanzee sanctuary has shut its doors to tourists for more than two months as a protest against deforestation and land grabs that threaten the survival of wildlife in Sierra Leone.
The Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary, located in the Western Area Peninsula near Freetown, is home to over 100 mostly orphaned chimps and is a popular eco-tourism site. Its founder, Bala Amarasekaran, says he will not reopen the lodges or walking trails to visitors until the government takes stronger action to stop illegal logging and land encroachment.
“A few months ago, we started seeing land grabbing and encroachment inching closer to the sanctuary,” Amarasekaran told Reuters. “Deforestation is really threatening the sanctuary’s existence. It’s dangerous when human activity gets too close to a wildlife preserve like this.”
Founded 30 years ago, Tacugama has survived Sierra Leone’s civil war and the 2013-2016 Ebola epidemic. But Amarasekaran says the current environmental crisis poses one of its gravest threats yet.
According to Global Forest Watch, Sierra Leone lost 2.17 million hectares of tree cover between 2001 and 2024—around 39% of what existed in 2000. In the peninsula surrounding Freetown alone, more than 10,000 hectares have been cleared, largely due to unchecked construction and “land grabbing.”
The dangers of deforestation were tragically underscored in 2017, when heavy rains triggered a massive mudslide on Mount Sugar Loaf, killing about 1,000 people. A study by the Geological Society of London later blamed the disaster on deforested slopes and poor land management.
Information Minister Chernor Bah admitted that the country faces “an existential problem,” saying, “We regret that Tacugama has closed, but we understand why.”
While President Julius Maada Bio’s government has launched some raids on illegal logging sites, Amarasekaran says the actions have lacked consistent follow-up. “There’s been some effort,” he said, “but not enough to make us feel it is safe to reopen.”
The government has pledged to strengthen protections for the peninsula’s forests, but for now, Tacugama remains closed, leaving its trails and eco-lodges empty.