Freetown, Sierra Leone – President Julius Maada Bio has taken Sierra Leone’s heritage and eco-tourism agenda directly into the field, inspecting key national sites tied to culture, conservation, and future investment. His tour covered Leicester Peak, the Tacugama Innovation Center, and Bunce Island, the historic slave-trade fortress whose restoration is central to the government’s plan to attract diaspora visitors, deepen national memory, and widen the economy beyond old extractive sectors.
President Bio’s visit to Bunce Island carries strong symbolic weight, as it marks the first official trip by a sitting Sierra Leonean head of state to the protected heritage site in more than forty years. During the inspection, the presidency reviewed restoration work handled through the tourism authorities, with emphasis on preserving the island’s historic structures while turning the site into a stronger educational, cultural, and ancestral bridge for Africans and the wider diaspora.
Bio also used the tour to send a firm governance message on environmental protection, warning local authorities against land grabbing and unlawful settlement around protected forest reserves. He described the developing Tacugama Innovation Center as a major conservation and tourism asset that can support jobs, research, and rural hospitality. The administration is presenting Sierra Leone’s forests, heritage sites, and coastal history as bankable assets for sustainable growth.
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