Loma Mountains comprise the northernmost outlying forest in Sierra Leone, and the largest area of montane forest in the country. Bintumani peak is the highest in West Africa. The Loma Mountain range has a rich bird fauna, quite different from that of the lowland forests such as Gola.

Loma mountains forest reserve is found in the Nieni and Neya Chiefdoms in the Koinadugu District, Northern Province, about 346 km northeast of Freetown.

The forest reserve is found on a range of hills of a wide altitudinal range (400 – 1900 m), the highest being Bintimani Mountain (1945 m), which is the highest in West Africa – west of Cameroon. Many rivers drain the mountain range and two of Sierra Leone’s major rivers have their sources from this region; the Sewa to the southwest and Rokel to the northwest.

Tiwai in Mende language means big island
Tiwai Island is Sierra Leone’s first community conservation programme
At 12 sq kms, Tiwai is one of Sierra Leone’s largest inland islands
Tiwai has one of the highest concentration and diversity of primates in the world with 11 species.

The Gola Forest Reserves, which host the last significant patches of rainforest in Sierra Leone, spread east of Tiwai to the Liberian border.

Tiwai has one of the highest concentration and diversity of primates in the world, with 11 species co-existing in a 12sq/km area surrounded by a tropical river, The Moa. Some of the species are rare and endangered, such as the monkeys (black & white, red and olive) and the Diana monkey. There is also the possibility of seeing wild Chimpanzees in their natural habitat by venturing to the Southern tip of the island with a guide where the apes have a tendency to call home. These chimps, contrary to their cousins in East Africa use stones as hammers and tree roots as anvils to crack open hard nuts.