The Daily IIJ

The National Environment Agency (NEA) launches the State of the Environment Report (SOER) 2010 and the Gambia Environment Action Plan (GEAP II) 2009 – 2018 at its complex in Kanifing on Wednesday June 30, 2010.
The Report highlighted the emerging environmental challenges and issues for policy makers to evaluate the impact of policy responses on environmental performance in The Gambia. It also aimed at establishing environmental awareness which is key to the public and support of interventions addressing the degrading environment as well as the need to consider the environment as an integral part of the socio-economic planning process in the country.
“The Report also highlights the changes that have occurred in the environment and natural resources sectors since the publication of the first SOER in 1997,” the NEA, established in 1994 by the country’s highest policy making body on environmental management, the National Environment Management Council (NEMC) said.
The GEAP Phase II document on its part is a sequel to The Gambia Environment Action Plan developed in 1992 and adopted by the country a year later. It provides the framework for environmental policy planning and natural resource management on a continuous basis. Its implementation commenced in 1994 with collaboration between the Gambia Government and the donor community. Speaking at the launch, NEA executive director Momodou B. Sarr argued that without a national environment action plan, any country would be groping in the dark in trying to find solutions to key environmental problems on an ad-hoc basis. On SOER, he said it is widely accepted that a large number of African countries had constraints in effective environmental planning and management as well as implementing major international multilateral agreements due to lack of adequate and relevant information. “This was why the African Ministerial Conference on Environment decided to establish the African Environment Information Network with the aim of harnessing and enhancing access to information and knowledge to support the management of Africa’s environment resources as assets for sustainable development,” he said.
On behalf of President Jammeh, the Minister of Fisheries Water Resources and National Assembly Matters Lamin Kabba Bajo said the 2nd SOER will continue to be a vital information Source in promoting sustainable development in The Gambia for academics, students and the public.
The document provides good insights for all inhabitants on important issues of the country’s social and economic development. The ultimate aim of the Report is to contribute towards creating a better understanding and appreciation of the inter-linkages between different sectoral issues within the socio-economic development of the country, he said.
He stressed that the country will never allow greed and the scramble for profits to destroy the lives and livelihoods of the people as currently happening with the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. He also stressed that all development projects must obtain approved environmental impact assessment (EIA) or be stopped and it makes no difference whatsoever be it government driven projects or privately owned.
The Resident Coordinator of the UN System in The Gambia, Dr. Chinwe Dike said the Report is meant to quickly disseminate relevant and state of the art environmental data for mainstreaming environment sustainability as in disaster risk reduction (DRR) and climate change adaptation (CCA) into national plans, policies and programmes to promote national efforts in environmental affairs.
“The Gambia faces several challenges in environment related matters which constrain the nation’s development for example, resource constraints, inadequate capacity including the paucity of data at the policy, planning, strategic and programmatic levels,” she argued.
However, she admits that the Reports will provide the critical information required by decision-makers and field practitioners for the sound management of the country’s environment resources.
She said there are growing concerns that environmental degradation due to inappropriate policy decisions and other anthropogenic factors are a significant problem globally, while noting that The Gambia’s rapid population growth rate of 2.8 percent per annum (2003 Census) with its growing demand for food and other services has led to increasing pressure on natural resources and has had serious environmental consequences.
“The majority of The Gambian population is dependent on agriculture for its livelihood. However, agriculture is subsistent and rain-fed in nature thus very dependent on climatic and environmental changes,” the UN System Coordinator observed.
The Permanent Secretary Ministry of Forestry and the Environment, Mr. Lamin Nyabally noted that the 4th Assessment Report of the intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has confirmed that the impact of climate change will be felt by an increase in air, sea and surface temperatures; sea level rise; drought or rainfall intensity; submergence of beaches and inundation of low-lying coastal lands and increased incidence of ‘bio-toxins and algal blooms’.
In The Gambia, he noted that the overwhelming majority of the population lives within 100 kilometers off the coast and as a result climate change and variability will have significant social impacts on the livelihoods of most Gambians dependent on tourism, fisheries and agriculture.
Both documents (SOER and GEAP II) were prepared by Gambia’s environment tink-tanks and funded by the UNDP, EU and the National Authority Office.