Awareness of the need to prevent environmental degradation and to institute soil conservation measures formed an important element in colonial forestry and agricultural policies throughout the African continent. Recent studies of colonial agricultural policies in East and southern Africa have noted that political considerations, as well as influences from outside the colonies, were significant factors in the implementation of soil conservation programmes, particularly in the colonies of white settlement (Berry & Townshend, 1971; Robinson, 1978, 1981; Stocking, 1983; Anderson, 1984; Beinart, 1984). However, it has not yet been demonstrated whether the generalisations drawn from these studies are applicable to the trade-orientated, West African colonies. This study analyses the relationship between agriculture and soil conservation policies, and environmental degradation during the past century in Sierra Leone (see Millington, 1987a). The period has been divided into thr2ee phases, the first beginning with the establishment of the Sierra Leone Protectorate in 1895, the second running from 1939 until independence in 1961, and the third dealing with the years since independence.

Environmental degradation, 1895–1939

The first detailed statements on environmental degradation in Sierra Leone during this period are to be found in the extensive forest surveys conducted in 1909 and 1911. These concentrated on water resources (Unwin, 1909) and soil degradation (Lane-Poole, 1911) respectively, but both concurred in attributing large-scale deforestation to ‘wasteful’ and ‘reckless’ shifting cultivation.