YSI is continuing Aberdeen coordination with the National Protected Area Authority and is seeking current boundary, management, access and activity-specific guidance.
Aberdeen Creek Protection & Recovery Project · Freetown · Development stage
Protect first.
Diagnose carefully.
Restore what evidence supports.
YSI Africa is developing the Aberdeen Creek Protection & Recovery Project as an evidence-led wetland protection and ecological recovery initiative. The current phase is designed to establish the site evidence, authority pathway, community context and technical basis needed to decide what future intervention — if any — is appropriate.
Protected wetland context
Aberdeen Creek sits within an internationally important estuary.
Aberdeen Creek is within the Sierra Leone River Estuary Ramsar Site (No. 1014). The original Ramsar site map identifies Aberdeen Creek as a core zone within the wider designated site.
That context makes evidence, authority coordination and ecological diagnosis essential before physical action. YSI is not presenting itself as the wetland manager or as having authority to undertake restoration independently.
Current work
From advocacy to a defensible environmental operating model.
The project is being built around evidence, permissions, ecological diagnosis, community context and clear decision gates.
The evidence package is designed around repeatable ground photographs, GPS points, lawful observation, historical comparison and authoritative boundary information.
YSI is examining how urban waste and pollution may move toward the creek so source-control responses can be designed outside sensitive habitat where appropriate.
The project will distinguish intact areas, degraded areas, natural regeneration, hydrological constraints and other stressors before proposing restoration actions.
Local knowledge, legitimate resource use, access, livelihoods and stewardship are part of the baseline rather than an afterthought.
YSI is mapping existing and historical restoration activity so any future role is complementary rather than parallel or duplicative.
Potential first-phase outputs
Build the evidence required to make a responsible restoration decision.
Funding-control rule: YSI will not publish a round-number project ask until the phase is costed from scope, methods, access, permissions, staffing, technical support, transport, safety, data needs and local quotations.
Technical doctrine
Restoration is not the same thing as planting trees.
YSI's working restoration doctrine follows ecological mangrove-restoration principles: understand why degradation occurred, reduce or remove relevant stressors, protect or restore the conditions that allow recovery, prioritize natural regeneration, monitor results, and use targeted planting only where site-specific evidence shows it is necessary.
This reduces the risk of planting the wrong species, in the wrong place, under conditions that cannot support long-term recovery.
Global Mangrove Alliance best-practice guidance →
Technical status: this is the project's operating doctrine, not a claim that a hydrological, ecological or biodiversity assessment has already been completed at Aberdeen Creek.
Decision pathway
Evidence before intervention.
The next physical step will be determined by what the evidence and competent authorities support.
01CoordinateAuthority pathway and jurisdiction
02BaselinePhotos, GPS, maps and observations
03DiagnoseStressors, hydrology and recovery conditions
04Control leakageWaste and pollution pathways
05ReviewTechnical and community evidence
06DecideGo, modify or no-go
Institutional engagement
Relationships are described precisely.
National Protected Area Authority (NPAA): YSI has current Aberdeen Creek communication. This establishes a contact and coordination pathway; it is not presented as project approval or partnership.
Mangrove Action Project: YSI is in an active technical exchange. MAP has requested site context, GPS points, ground-level photographs and project information before deeper technical discussion. This is a technical contact relationship, not a formal partnership.
Environment Protection Agency Sierra Leone (EPA-SL): YSI has an existing institutional contact pathway. EPA directed Aberdeen-specific coordination toward NPAA; future EPA engagement remains relevant where a defined activity raises EPA-specific regulatory questions.
Relationship rule: an institution is not described as a partner, funder, endorser or approving authority unless that status is documented.
Current status
Show movement without overstating maturity.
The project is organized around completed preparation, the next evidence inputs and the gates that remain before physical action.
Planning architecture
Evidence controls, baseline protocol, authority/stakeholder mapping, technical restoration doctrine, field observation tools, readiness register and 90-day pre-design workplan exist internally.
YSI has also established a formal technical-review gate and an independent pre-deployment audit. These are internal control systems—not evidence that a physical intervention has been technically cleared or authorized.
Real-world evidence
Priority inputs are current georeferenced field photographs, authoritative boundary/GIS material, NPAA guidance, site-specific safety/access review and duplication mapping.
Physical intervention
Planting, hydrological modification, waste-interception structures and other habitat-altering work remain behind evidence, authority, technical, safety and financing gates.
Evidence standard
The project will be built so its claims can be defended.
YSI's baseline protocol separates observation from inference, preserves dates and provenance, records repeatable observation points, and treats stakeholder statements as attributed input rather than automatically verified fact.
Quantitative Aberdeen-specific claims will not be published as verified results unless the underlying source, method, geography, period and unit can be defended.
The immediate evidence priorities are authoritative boundary/GIS information, current georeferenced photographs, site-access and safety review, current NPAA guidance, mapping of previous restoration footprints, and a clearer picture of waste and pollution pathways.
Public project page updated: 5 September 2026.
Funding & technical contribution
Useful evidence is more valuable than premature promises.
YSI welcomes appropriately scoped funding, technical guidance, maps, historical site information, data and specialist input that can strengthen the first-phase baseline and help define an appropriate, non-duplicative role.