Deforestation: constructing problems and solutions on Sierra Leone's Freetown Peninsula

This article examines the issue of deforestation on Sierra Leone's Freetown Peninsula, specifically analysingthe gap that exists between the rhetoric surrounding the problem of deforestation and the subsequentpolicies and projects that are implemented to address it. It is argued in this paper that this gap can be betterunderstood by examining how different actors involved in policy and projects interact over the issue ofdeforestation. Such an examination reveals how these actors produce discourses of blame towards poorer,politically weaker groups, which ultimately results in deforestation 'solutions' that intervene into their lives.These prescriptions of blame and subsequent solutions for deforestation are negotiated through acombination of local realities, which includes the occurrence of deforestation, and global influences such asdevelopment discourses and interventions. The analysis here reflects a political ecology framework that alsodraws from post-structuralist insights and reveals how underlying discourses, actions and actors across abroad political, social and economic spectrum ultimately play a role in influencing the causes, perceptionsand solutions relating to deforestation.