The Daily Observer (Banjul)
Aji Fatou Faal
17 November 2009
The Africa Network of Environmental Journalists-The Gambia chapter (ANEJ-G) has recently concluded sensitisation activities conducted on behalf of the National Environment AgencyÂ's (NEA) Adaptation to Climate and Coastal Changes (ACCC) project in four coastal communities in the Western Region.
The sensitisation which is conducted in the form of focus group discussions covered Brufut, Tanji, Ghana-Town and Madyana villages, which are also beneficiaries to a key activity of the project - the construction of an ecotourism camp at the Tanji Bird Reserve. The ACCC is a sub-regional project involving five countries including Cape Verde, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Mauritania and Senegal. The five countries have common coastal environmental problems prominent among which is coastal erosion and degradation of the coastal ecosystems.
The countries are also equally deemed highly vulnerable to the expected outcomes of climate change. While a number of these problems may be naturally caused, they are equally highly aggravated by human actions, and in fact in some cases mainly caused by human action.
The ACCC project in collaboration with ANEJ-Gambia aims to sensitise four coastal communities on climate change and related issues and on the objectives of project interventions, particularly the ecotourism camp construction within the Tanji Bird Reserve. The specific objectives are to increase awareness of concerned communities on matters of climate change, provide guidance to adaptation to climate change, increase awareness on the objectives of ecotourism and provide guidance on positive attitudinal change towards natural resources conservation.
In his opening remarks, the Alkalo of Brufut, Alh. Yunusa Sannoh, hailed stakeholders for undertaking such an initiative, saying the sensitization meeting could not have come at a better time - when they as coastal settlers are beginning to see the threat that coastal erosion is posing to their settlement. Such threats he said is looming as far as climate change is concerned. As beneficiaries, he urged his fellow villagers to take note of the deliberations and disseminate the ideas they amassed in the workshop to their colleagues. He further revealed that the climatic conditions of today and those of the subsequent generations are quite different for the fact that due to human activities most of the thick forests had been cut down, and that there is an increase in illegal sand mining, continuous loss of biodiversity and an increase in erosion, which he said are now all affecting them seriously. He therefore called for attitudinal change from the local communities.
In Ghana Town, Alkalo Kobina Ekuam welcomed the team and revealed that as majority of them are fishermen, the impact of climate change is very visible in his community. He urged his community participants to seriously concentrate during the dayÂ's training and further disseminate the knowledge learnt to others who do not have the opportunity to attend in what he described as a life-saving sensitization. Thanking UNDP-Gambia, ACCC project and ANEJ-Gambia, Mr. Ekuam said the sensitization is timely and very important.
The Alkalo of Tanji village, Cherno Bojang, hailed the ACCC project and the NEA for their foresight and called on not only the coastal communities, but the entire country with her surrounding neighbors to fight what he described as their worst enemy, climate change. He appealed to the communities to embark on massive tree planting and for attitudinal change towards the environment.
Alh. Musa Manneh, the Alkalo of Madyana village, thanked the NEA and the project for selecting his community to stage what he described as very important sensitization. He said they owe it to generations not yet born so that they (the unborn) would find the village a conducive place to live. He said failure to adhere to that, Allah the Almighty shall punish whosoever destroys the environment. He recounted that Madyana has planted more trees than any of their neighbors. He called on the project to bring such more sensitizations to his village noting that knowledge is power.
Dodou Trawally, National Project coordinator of the ACCC project said the project is rresponding to coastline change and its human dimensions in West Africa through Integrated Coastal Area Management. He said the project outcome is to increase the adaptive capacity and resilience of coastline ecosystems in regions vulnerable to climate change impacts. The project coordinator reminded participants on the dangers posed to the environment due to human induced activities such as the felling of trees, bush fires and sand mining along the coast. With up to forty percent of the population settling along the coastline of the Gambia, Trawally said more effort is needed to tackle coastal erosion and climate change in the country.
The goal of the project according to Trawally, is to develop and pilot a range of effective coping mechanisms for reducing the impact and vulnerability of climate change in The Gambia. He also gave an overview of climate change and agreed that it has caused series of negative impacts and that going by the findings of scientists such negative consequences will continue to create far more problems unless it is stopped by humans. Climate change, Trawally believes is a major threat to national development since it can compromise with both past and present achievements whilst at the same time undermining the future development targets.
As a cross cutting issue, the ACCC project coordinator, stressed the projectÂ's stance to fully support the people on creating alternative means of livelihood by establishing an eco- tourism centre in Tanji Bird Reserve in partnership with stakeholders such as in parks and wildlife, tourism and forestry. Trawally finally implored on ANEJ-Gambia chapter members to be steadfast in sensitizing the masses on the dangers of climate change and its related consequences.
The coordinator of African Network of Environment Journalists-Gambia chapter, Sheikh Alkinky Sanyang, on behalf of ANEJ-Gambia hailed stakeholders for allowing the association to lead the massive sensitization on climate change within the coastal communities in The Gambia. He said it is a great pleasure for the African Network of Environmental Journalists (ANEJ-GAMBIA) to lead this massive sensitization crusade on climate change within the coastal communities in The Gambia, on behalf of the Adaptation to Coastal & Climate Change (ACCC) project of the National Environment Agency (NEA) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
Presently, Sanyang said global warming and climate change has caused a lot of range of negative consequences and will continue to create far more unless stopped by man. He said climate change is indeed a major threat to national wellbeing compromising past achievements and seriously undermining ongoing and future development targets and efforts. He said there is an urgent need to strengthen climate monitoring & prediction at national level to enhance hazard detection and prediction for increased resilience to climate shocks.
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