The defender-led group Nô Recursos Our Resources) works in partnership with Not1More in Guinea-Bissau. The major focus for Nô Recursos and environmental defenders in the country is preventing illegal logging. We support Nô Recursos' activities, which include training, journalism, awareness raising, sustainable farming and community development. We also provide security, medical and livelihood support to defenders and their families that have been persecuted.
Since 2014, Nô Recursos have run a radio programme that alerts people to environmental issues in Guinea-Bissau. They undertake investigative journalism, organise protests and raise awareness about the importance of the country’s natural environment, as well as the threats from logging and climate change. By highlighting disparities such as USD$20,000 of illegally-cut timber stacked outside a village school that didn’t have the funds to build a roof or that loggers pay no taxes in the areas where they operate, Nô Recursos brought together communities to oppose logging.
The radio programme has a national reach, as it is scheduled to go on air at the same time across various different local and community radio stations across the country. Its wide listenership makes it influential and able to expose government complicity in environmental crimes. However, as many local radio stations require payment for airtime, the programme requires funding to run. Since early 2022, the programme has not been able to air publicly due to lack of resources, though investigations have been continuing. The group have shared these investigations using audio notes on messaging apps, but hope to reach a wider audience again once they have secured funding.
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In 2014, West Africa suffered from an explosion in logging due to the lucrative trade in rosewood. Chinese imports of West African rosewood, Pterocarpus erinaceus, increased from US$12,000 to over US$180 million in just five years, a 15,000-fold increase, making this the most heavily traded tropical hardwood species in the world. In the rural areas of West Africa, where the ongoing rosewood trade has been heaviest, more than 90% of the population depends on farming for survival. Loggers offer local communities just a few dollars per trunk, or a small amount of food in exchange for cutting trees that sell for over $USD18,000 per container. Often they take what they like without offering any compensation whatsoever. This is despite the crucial role of these forests, which produce and store over 90% of regional rainfall and so are vital for local farmers. Their role in water recycling for local distribution is higher than that of the Amazon and the forests of North America.
In 2015, the government of Guinea-Bissau implemented a logging moratorium, and the authorities confiscated vast amounts of cut timber. Unfortunately, after the ban on selling rosewood was lifted in 2018, illegal logging has rapidly returned. Chopping down rosewood is theoretically still prohibited, however freshly-cut logs are laundered by passing them off as part of the reserves of confiscated timber stockpiled by the government. The current vice-president, who is in charge of timber exports, is the owner of a major sawmill in the capital city.
The powerful financial interests at play – from the IMF and World Bank, who are creditors to Guinea Bissau and who were paid with the sale of the stockpile, to organised crime, traffickers and members of the military – makes fighting deforestation dangerous. People who attempt to stop the logging face violent reprisals. The knock-on effects of the illegal timber trade also affect rural communities, whose roads are destroyed by heavy machinery, making it impossible for ambulances to reach them in emergencies.
Find out more about the fight against the illegal rosewood trade from the environmental defender Justino Sa on our Immerse page.
Nô Recursos has been working with villages to designate their local forests as spirit forests. In these areas, cutting trees, collecting firewood and hunting are forbidden. Before starting this process in Guinea-Bissau, the group visited other West African spirit forests in The Gambia and Senegal to learn from the communities there how they set up the spirit forests and the effects they have had. This wider network continues to support the new spirit forests set up by Nô Recursos, with members of villages in the other West African nations attending the first spirit forest ceremony in Guinea-Bissau. To date, Nô Recursos have signed up 9 villages as custodians of spirit forests. However, as both a cultural and legal designation, spirit forests must fulfil certain criteria to be recognised. Local government regulations require each forest to have officially-certified dimensions and to have a designated public building either within the forest or its associated village. As these requirements have cost implications, the group are currently raising funds through their community farming initiative.
To give themselves financial independence and to benefit their local community, Nos Recursos practise small-scale farming. They grow crops such as watermelon, okra, cassava, beans, corn, peanuts and rice. A portion of this feeds local people and is donated to nearby schools and hospitals, the rest is sold to raise funds. The money received from crop sales supports the creation of spirit forests, pays a pension to widows, helps develop local schools and runs training schemes for women and young people in sustainable agriculture and environmental protection. By teaching people how to farm in ecologically-friendly ways, Nos Recursos is helping them access a long-term source of food and money that supports the local forests, instead of depleting them.
Nos Recursos are looking for funding partners who can help support their educational and environmental community schemes. If you would like to find out more, please contact justine@not1more.org.
