Urban Forestry & Carbon Finance: PI-CREF and Freetown Mayor Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr reviewed progress on the Freetown Tree Town initiative, including green jobs and a push toward making Freetown Sierra Leone’s first municipal carbon credit programme ahead of a September 2026 deadline. Clean Cooking Strategy: Sierra Leone convened a National Clean Cooking Strategy familiarization workshop, aiming to cut firewood/charcoal use, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and deforestation, and improve air quality through options like LPG, improved cookstoves, biogas and electricity. Mangrove Protection: The National Protected Area Authority launched the Sierra Leone chapter of the Global Mangrove Alliance to strengthen mangrove restoration and sustainable management, with concerns raised about the condition of some sites like Aberdeen Creek. Weather & Food Security Tools: A new rainfall dataset update (CHIRPS v3) improves near-real-time precipitation monitoring, supporting drought and flood planning and early warning for food insecurity in places like Sierra Leone. Climate-Linked Migration Pressure: A Guardian analysis says US entry restrictions are hitting people from some of the world’s most climate-vulnerable countries, including Sierra Leone, as storms, floods and droughts worsen. Local Governance for Resilience: IGR and MoPED launched Local Council Development Plans to boost citizen participation, accountability and service delivery—key for tackling climate and development pressures at the grassroots.