S2 Ep6: Summer Series with Front Line Defenders: The Changing Climate of Sierra Leone with Joseph Rahall from Green Scenery

Hello lovely people!

Welcome back to CLIMATE QUEENS and our third and final installment of our collaboration with Front Line Defenders. This month we are joined by environmental rights activist and human rights defender Joseph Rahall.

As well as speaking with Joseph, we also had the pleasure of speaking with Mariam Sawadogo, the Front Line Defenders Regional Protection Coordinator for the west and central continent of Africa. The conversation was so good and important that we decided Mariam deserved her own bonus episode- so watch this space to hear more from Mariam.

As you will hear from Mariam's introduction, Joseph Rahall is an expert in environmental protection with over 27 years’ experience. In 1989, when Joseph was still a high school teacher, he founded Green Scenery, an organisation that works to promote environmental awareness and ensure the conservation of Sierra Leone.

In our conversation we delve into the changes Joseph has seen to the climate of Sierra Leone since his childhood including deforestation and "freaky" weather patterns disrupting local ecosystems and food production. He explains so eloquently just how badly his country is experiencing the effects of the climate crisis- a direct result of our actions in the developed world. Joseph's work intersects many disciplines and you will hear this as Joseph speaks about empowering local communities, the commonalities between the current injustices of the global pandemic and the climate crisis and the need for the developed world to slow consumption.

We were honored to spend time speaking with Joseph and could have continued long into the evening. We hope you enjoy hearing Joseph's story and the brave work he is committed to with Green Scenery.

This is the last of our three-part series in collaboration with Front Line Defenders, but fear not we will be back for a very special episode to celebrate the Arts & Human Rights Festival with the lovely people in Front Line Defenders- so stay tuned for more on this!
We have been truly blown away by the response from our listeners to the incredible conversations we have had with Marcelo Cwerner from Brazil, Lay Peng Pua from Malaysia and no doubt you will share the same love & support for our conversation with Joseph Rahall. We hope that this is just the beginning of us having the opportunity to use our platform to elevate the most important voices of the climate movement. We’d really like to express our gratitude to the team at Front Line Defenders- Laura, Ross, Grace and Tara. Thank you guys for reaching out and seeing the potential in our platform for generating fascinating conversation with dedicated and amazing people fighting on the front lines.

Much love,

Katie & Clo
SHOWNOTES:
To read more about Green Scenery: http://greenscenery.org/
Joseph Rahall: https://www.frontlinedefenders.org/en/profile/joseph-rahall
Letter to UN High Commissioner Mary Robinson on Sierra Leone Conflict: https://www.hrw.org/news/1999/06/17/letter-un-high-commissioner-human-rights-mary-robinson-sierra-leone-conflict
Food insecurity in Sierra Leone: https://www.wfp.org/publications/findings-sierra-leone-food-security-monitoring-jan-2020
Climate risk and Sierra Leone:
https://www.climatelinks.org/resources/climate-change-risk-profile-sierra-leone#:~:text=The%20brief%20includes%20an%20overview,the%20climate%20and%20projected%20changes.&text=High%20dependence%20on%20agriculture%20and,vulnerable%20to%20climate%20change%20impacts.
Climate crisis could displace 1.2 billion people by 2050:
https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-crisis-displaced-people-global-warming-b421621.html