In Sierra Leone’s Kono District, women are cultivating restored land, building livelihoods, and taking a stronger role in decisions about their communities’ future. Through the Peace Diamonds Restoration Initiative, they are helping turn mined-out land into a source of food, income, and community pride.
Their work responds to the damage artisanal and small-scale diamond mining can leave behind, including unsafe pits, depleted soils, and contaminated water.
RESOLVE’s Peace Diamonds Restoration Initiative (PDRI) was established to help communities rehabilitate and repurpose mined-out land in Sierra Leone. The PDRI team works alongside national and local governments, traditional leaders, and community members to plan and carry out the work.
For Finda Dissa, a member of the Motayorma Farmers Cooperative, cultivating rehabilitated land has changed her role at home:
“This work has become our main source of livelihood, enabling us to pay school fees for our children, cover hospital bills, and support our families. It has also given us the opportunity to contribute to household income while playing an active role in restoring and managing the land in our communities.”
Finda’s experience reflects the work of 800 women supported through 10 women-led Farmer-Based Organizations. Their groups grow vegetables on rehabilitated land, contributing to local food production and generating income. Women are producers and entrepreneurs, and they help care for the land their communities depend on. The Peace Diamonds Restoration Initiative (PDRI) offers entrepreneurial workshops for women and girls and promotes their participation in decisions about land management.
Sia Mary Musa, who leads PDRI’s engagement with these women, reflects on their leadership and the work ahead:
“For generations, diamonds have shaped the story of Kono, but our future must be about more than what lies beneath our land. It must also be about what we can grow from it. Through PDRI, we are working to turn the environmental challenges left by mining into opportunities for agriculture, sustainable livelihoods, and women’s empowerment. Seeing women cultivate restored land, generate income, and take an active role in shaping their communities reminds us that recovery is possible. To me, life after diamonds means building a future where restored land creates lasting opportunities and communities can thrive long after mining has ended.”
Since 2019, PDRI has reclaimed 187 hectares across 182 mining settlements in six chiefdoms. Thirty hectares have been rehabilitated into inland valley swamp systems now used for vegetable cultivation. Irrigation canals support agricultural productivity, creating more opportunities for women’s groups to grow food and earn income from restored land.
PDRI has directly engaged approximately 2,400 community members and trained 500 women and young people in sustainable land restoration and post-mining land management. These skills strengthen women’s ability to contribute to rehabilitation and steward land over time.
The women of PDRI are shaping what recovery looks like in their communities: reclaiming land, growing food, earning income, building skills, and helping guide decisions about the future. Their leadership is central to the restoration taking place across Kono District.
Contact Sia Mary Musa at smusa@resolve.ngo to learn more about the Peace Diamonds Restoration Initiative.
At RESOLVE, we’re here to tackle the toughest global challenges. The ones nobody else wants to touch. Where people are in conflict and planet problems are stuck. We’re here to unstick them. It’s not easy. It takes grit and ingenuity. And finding and working with the right partners. But we’re not called RESOLVE for nothing.
