Day 29 - A Big Tree on a small planet

It’s possibly the most amazing tree I have ever seen, and I didn’t even get to see the top!

“Big tree” is a huge Piptadeniastrum africanum. From my vantage point on the forest floor, I could mainly see its roots, thin buttress structures up to a metre high which spread from the trunk. They had a sculptural, architectural and ethereal beauty, almost hollow to the touch but spreading across the forest floor to provide the stability that such a magnificent tree needed.

“Big Tree” has a special, and important, place in the hearts and lives of the local communities who live near it. Our guide told us that the tree has numerous health benefits. Its bark and sap have been used in traditional medicine including to cure skin diseases. Hitting the hollow roots can transmit a sound which can help locate people lost in the forest.

“Big tree” is, as its local name suggests, the tallest tree on Tiwai Island, a wildlife sanctuary nestling within the heart of the Upper Guinea forest of West Africa, in south-eastern Sierra Leone.

Although known locally as "big island" in the Mende language, Tiwai Island covers an area of 12 square kilometres (so is actually quite small by the standards of government-protected wildlife sanctuaries). However, its location as an island in the middle of the Moa River has created a unique lush, verdant landscape. This has made it a globally recognized "biodiversity hotspot", home to a number of rare or endangered species including the pygmy hippopotamus as well as 11 species of monkeys, 135 species of birds and 700 tree species.

As inspiring as the island itself is the care shown to it. Tiwai Island is managed by the Environmental Foundation for West Africa and is run on a day-to-day basis by local people. Local Sierra Leoneans have been trained as zoologists, and the local community runs a low impact, small scale, eco-tourism project to help fund the important conservation work. It was thanks to them that I was able to visit and experience the wonders of the island.

We are so used to hearing depressing news about the care shown to our planet. Governments are reviewing previous pledges made to reduce carbon emissions; oil companies are announcing that they will cut renewable energy investments and instead focus on increasing oil and gas production; presidents are saying “drill baby drill”. What can we do in the face of such forces?

Initiatives such as on Tiwai Island may seem like a drop in the environmental ocean. But they matter. There are many thousands of examples like Tiwai around the world, where governments, agencies and - most importantly – local people are caring for our planet and educating people like me along the way. As Christians we know that:-

The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it,

the world, and all who live in it;

for he founded it on the seas

and established it on the water. (Psalm 24: 1-2)

We need to stand alongside the conservationists, volunteers, administrators and legislators as they work to protect our world – upholding them in our prayers and by our actions. What can you do in your local community to support such initiatives?

Big Tree may be on a small island, but it is also on a small and fragile planet.

Philip Clarke