/IPS ENVIRONMENT BULLETIN/ GAMBIA: Campaign To Save Dwindling Resources

By Lansana Fofana Reprint | | Print |

Lansana Fofana

BANJUL, Oct 12 1996 (IPS) - The September polls to end two-years of military-rule was the first in a series of hurdles before this tiny West African country.

According to environmentalists here, the next challenge for the country, which is merely a sliver of land engulfed by neighbouring Senegal, is to save its natural resources which are being depleted at an alarming rate.

Gambia’s government has put in place a National Environmental Action Plan to the year 2002. Implemented through the National Environment Agency (NEA), the plan includes an environmental literacy campaign, now underway in schools, institutes of higher education and in local communities.

The NEA also has organised an environmental award scheme to encourage local communities to manage their environment. Over 200 institutions – schools, women’s groups, communities and industries – are encouraged to take part in the competition.

“This award has encouraged communities, schools, individuals and NGOs to actively organise themselves and improve the environment,” said Nyada Yoba Baldeh, the coordinator of the NEA’s Inter-Sectoral Network.

Gambia is endowed with cropland, flora, fauna, forests, fresh and sea water and beaches which attract hundreds of tourists yearly.

But these resources are being degraded throughout the country “with alarming signs of complete depletion in some areas,” said the NEA in a report on the state of the environment.

“It is a serious problem that affects both the capital and the rural areas,” said Baldeh.

“Constant erosion, waste management and sand mining have been the major problems in the capital…,” he added. “In the rural areas, bushfires, poor natural resources management and agricultural practices have all led to serious depletion of the soil.”

A programme to rehabilitate deforested areas is run by the NEA. It entails the management of trees in farmlands through community forestry management, soil conservation and measures to treat the soil with compost.

The NEA also noted in its report that there has been an increase in solid waste and pollution of water sources from both industrial and domestic sources.

The tiny country of about 11,000 square kilometres of land is slowly watching its coastline being eaten away. According to the United Nations Environment Programme, Gambia is one of the world’s 10 most vulnerable countries for a rise in sea levels.

This could lead to anywhere from a three percent loss of land (if the sea level rises 50 cm) to a seven percent loss of land (if it rises 150 cm) over the next 15 years.

One of the biggest threats to the environment has been the pervasive mining of sand on the country’s beaches.

Sand mining in the Gambia was banned soon after the military came to power in July 1994. The illegal mining of sand had been going on in the country for more than 20 years.

Many Gambians illegally mine the sand on the country’s beaches for sell to the construction industry. But the practice has led to serious coastal erosion affecting the lucrative tourism industry, which is the biggest single source of foreign exchange earnings. The sector also contributes around 10 percent of Gross Domestic Product.

“We believe that continuous sand mining will make the beaches unattractive and this will affect our tourist industry a good deal,” a ministry of tourism official told IPS.