The Freetown City Council (FCC), through its Mayor’s Delivery Unit (MDU), has reaffirmed its unwavering commitment to the Tree Town Campaign a flagship urban reforestation initiative aimed at planting and digitally tracking five million trees across Freetown by 2030.
In an engagement held on Wednesday, 29th October 2025, FCC officials highlighted their ongoing tree-planting activities across the Freetown Municipality and emphasized the critical role of partnerships in promoting environmental sustainability.
Delivering the opening remarks, John Baimba, Communications Lead in the Mayor’s Office, commended the media for their continued collaboration with the Council. He stressed that media support remains vital in amplifying the Council’s environmental and development programs.
“Whatever we do, if the support of the media is not there, then it becomes a problem for us,” John Baimba stated.
He noted that the engagement served as a briefing ahead of a planned field visit to various tree-planting sites, where technical experts would interact with journalists and provide detailed insights into the implementation process.
Also speaking, Councillor Yunisa Kamara reaffirmed the Council’s dedication to the Tree Town Campaign and underscored the importance of trees in mitigating the impacts of climate change, such as flooding, landslides and rising temperatures.
“If we continue to plant trees and people don’t know their value, they will destroy them,” he cautioned.
Yunisa Kamara expressed concern over the destruction of planted areas by some residents, urging the media to help sensitize communities about the environmental and social benefits of tree planting.
Providing an overview of Freetown’s environmental challenges, Ms. Yatta Kallon, Climate Change Lead at the FCC, explained that the city faces severe air pollution and rapid deforestation due to unregulated urban expansion.
She revealed that between 2011 and 2018, Freetown lost an estimated 500,000 trees annually, a trend that could completely strip the city of its tree cover by 2044 if not urgently addressed.
Yatta Kallon noted that the Tree Town Campaign was launched to reverse this alarming trend through a blend of tree planting and digital tracking technology, ensuring transparency, accountability and long-term monitoring.
Under the campaign, the FCC aims to:
- Plant and digitally track five million trees and grasses by 2030
- Restore 5,000 hectares (12,300 acres) of degraded land
- Sequester 100,000 tons of carbon
- Create green jobs for youth and women
- Protect water sources and enhance urban resilience
Yatta Kallon further disclosed that in Phase 1 (2020–2023), approximately 977,000 trees were planted and digitally tracked across 13 catchment areas in the Western Area Peninsula. The ongoing Phase 2 (2024–2028) targets an additional five million trees, focusing on water catchment areas, coastal protection and slope stabilization.
Other key interventions include encouraging backyard planting (30%), slope stabilization (10%) and a Tree Giveaway Initiative to support household planting and expand urban greenery.
She highlighted that each tree planted under the campaign is geo-tagged and verified through a digital monitoring system. As of 2024, 304,753 trees have been verified through this process.
“We want to protect our environment, create jobs and build a greener, safer Freetown,” Yatta Kallon emphasized.
The campaign is expected to improve water retention, reduce heat, prevent landslides, capture carbon and enhance community resilience to climate-related disasters.
The engagement climaxed with a media field tour to tree-planting sites, including the FBC Botanical Gardens, where hundreds of trees have been planted and Kolleh Town Catchment 2, where about 100,000 mangrove trees were recently planted to protect coastal ecosystems.
