Background of this Project
In 2006 I was approached by Nippon Koei UK to conduct a baseline small mammal survey for the Bumbuna Hydroelectric Project (BHP) in the Upper Seli River valley, Sierra Leone. The BHP will supply electricity to the capital Freetown and the city of Makeni downriver from the dam (Fig. 1). This development project that was delayed by twelve years of the devastating civil war in Sierra Leone.
Our work involved the sampling of small mammals along the Seli River Valley in the future area of the reservoir. The electricity generated will NOT benefit any of the villages upstream of the dam. Instead, some of the villages’ low-lying rice fields and palm groves will be flooded by the reservoir and travel between villages on opposite sides of the new lake will be made difficult.