IX. ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES

i. Forestry

Mr Speaker,

• Government continues to vigorously pursue the 10-year Forest Policy goal through both Community and Private sector participation. This is to ensure that 30% of the total land area is put under forest cover and 75% managed. To achieve this goal the Department of Forestry last year launched the 10-year National Forestry Action Plan as base for sustainable forest management, monitoring and investment.

• In a bid to optimise benefits from our forests, eco-tourism is now being rigorously promoted. The successful case of Tumani Tenda as an eco-tourist resort has encouraged the replication of small-scale-community based tourism enterprises all over the country.

• With the support of the Federal Republic of Germany and the European Union, the area of forest under management continues to increase. The Central River Division Forestry Project has just entered its second phase with about DM 8 million provided by GTZ and Kfw. Interim arrangements were made with the European Union through the Support to Decentralised Rural Development (SDRD) Programme to provide financial support to forestry activities in the Upper River Division. The Gambian-German Forestry Project has entered its last phase during which it will focus on helping the implementation of forestry in Western and Lower River Divisions.

• The Community Forestry Concept is still being pursued with a great deal of commitment. Over 50,000 hectares of natural forest is under one form of community management or the other. Additional forest management options are being piloted to increase the participation of the general public in the management of the forest resources. Prominent among these is the Joint Forest Park Management with the neighbouring communities. This approach is being given special priority within the context of the Central River Division Forestry Project. Ultimately, it is intended that all the 66 forest parks in the country will be managed through this approach.

ii. Parks and Wildlife Management

Mr. Speaker,

• Cabinet has recently discussed and approved the first ever-comprehensive policy and legislation on biodiversity and wildlife for The Gambia. This new policy and legislation will ensure conformity with our international obligations in the area of the environment as well as guarantee and protect the rights of local resource users. It further seeks to retain a portion of the revenue generated for community development initiatives and for eventual reinvestment into the park system for the improvement of infrastructure and services.

• An MOU was signed in June 2001 with the Republic of Senegal regarding the trans-boundary Management of Niumi National Park and Saloum Delta Biosphere Reserve as an ecological entity for the benefit of our two countries.

iii. Water Resources

Mr Speaker,

• The Department of Water Resources continues to observe and provide early warning information on extreme Meteorological and Hydrological events, assess the Climate System to enhance management of our national water resources, to protect the environment and sensitise the general public on hygienic practices.

• The third phase of the Saudi Sahel Programme (SSP III), which started in October of 2000 has made substantial progress in the provision of 90 water points for 40, 000 people over a 22 months period.

• Since December 1999, a new phase of the EDF Village Water Supply (EDF-VWS) Project is being implemented as sub-component of the EDF financed SDRD programme. By the end of the programme in 2003, the project intends to complete thirty new solar powered village water supply systems and upgrade some twenty to twenty-five existing ones. The initial budget of the project is 3.8 million Euro equivalent to about fifty million dalasis.

• The project will also be supported by a second phase of the Regional Solar Programme (RSPII), also funded by the EDF, with a provisional budget allocation to the Gambia of 1.9 million Euro or about twenty-five million Dalasis. Also, concrete-lined wells fitted with hand pumps are constructed through Divisional EDF Programme under the SDRD; these are concentrated in the North Bank, Western and Upper River Division with a targeted 60,000 rural inhabitants to benefit.

iv. National Environment Agency (NEA)

Mr Speaker,

• Government is still committed to seeing that our natural resources and the environment are managed properly for the benefit of both our generation and generations to come. We shall continue to build on the successes registered from the implementation of the first phase of the Gambia Environment Action Plan (GEAP). In this connection, the National Environment Management Council has recently adopted the second phase of the GEAP (2001- 2004) as the next blue print for the sustainable utilisation of our natural resources and the environment.

• Government has accepted that sectoral approaches to the management and planning of natural resource utilisation, along coastal areas can no longer be sustainable. Consequently, it is within this framework that the GEAP has advocated the promotion of adaptable and flexible process of integrated coastal and marine areas management. The erosion of our coast is a matter of serious concern for its economic, social and cultural impacts, which are mostly negative.

• The results of the ADB- financed coastal studies conducted by a Dutch firm Haskoning have been submitted to Government. Among findings of the study is the need to site infrastructure and facilities at safe distances from the shoreline. We therefore urge all investors to abide by the relevant environmental laws and regulation in their investment ventures.

-end.