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The Environment and development
Thursday, 01 July 2010 00:05
By Kemo ChamThe Gambia Vision 2020 is for Gambia what the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are for the world's poorest countries. While the UN’s blueprint is arguably the most comprehensive such package of a global initiative in search of an acceptable living standard for humanity, the national blueprint of the Gambia, conceived well before the MDGs, represents a fair slice of the global initiative.
Latest assessment showed that the level of enthusiasm directed towards the achievement of the national goals needed an accelerated push if the 2020 target is to be met. And in January this year, President Yahya Jammeh announced, albeit inconclusively, that his government was poised to taking a series of measures towards this effort. Reduction of electricity tariff was one of those. For a country virtually unknown in the domains of hi-tech or commerce, a major potential victim of such augmented enthusiasm for development is bound to be its environment. It is a source of relief, however, that the relevant stakeholders appear well aware of this.
“For Vision 2020 to succeed there would be the need for accelerated growth led by the private sector, through increased investment and exploitation of the nation's natural resources,” Momodou B. Sarr, the Executive Director of the Gambia’s National Environment Agency, told participants last Wednesday. The occasion was the launch of the second edition of the State of the Environment Report (SOER II) and The Gambia Environmental Action Plan (GEAP).
GEAP is a vital policy document boasting of a coherent framework for environmental planning and natural resource management. And, in the words of the NEA boss, it gives “us a clear sense of direction on what the environmental priority issues are in The Gambia and the need to address them in a coordinated and holistic manner.”
The National Environment Management Act (NEMA) 1994 mandates the National Environment Agency to publish a State of the Environment Report which shall, among other things, highlight future challenges in the management of the country’s environment and strategies for addressing these challenges. The first report was published in 1997. The government argues that in addition to it taken into consideration the Vision 2020, vis-à-vis the environment, SOER II also addresses the Integrated Environmental Assessment and Reporting Initiative for the 2002 AMCEN meetings held in Kampala, Uganda.
Like the State of the Environment Reports, the Gambia Environment Action Plan (GEAP) Phase II is a sequel to GEAP (I) which was developed in 1992 and adopted by The Gambia a year later. After close to a decade and half of implementation, the government and its donor partners saw it fitting to reassess their position.
In the view of the NEA boss, Momodou Sarr, Wednesday’s launch represents a big achievement for the Gambia as research “have found out that only few countries in Africa have ever completed even one single National Environmental Action Plan.”
However, as a key stakeholder in Gambia’s development drive, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) country office is well aware of the key issues at stake. Its country representative was unequivocal in hitting at the points. Describing the development as “laudable”, Dr Chinwe Dike stressed a growing concern that environmental degradation due to inappropriate policy decision, poor quality and inadequate environmental data, general lack of awareness and other anthropogenic factors pose a significant problem globally.
The Gambia is home to a fairly considerable number of homeless and poverty stricken people, many of whom have over the years become direct victims of environmental related disasters. However, most of these people can hardly link their tribulations to the root causes.
Like in the rest of the region and probably beyond, Gambia has hardly been seriously wanting in policy directions. The core problem has always been implementation.
Dr Dike couldn’t have addressed this any better way when she stated: "I'm sure you would agree with me that the objective of the launch of these reports is to quickly and timely disseminate relevant and state-of-the-art environmental data for mainstreaming environmental sustainability including Disaster Risk Reduction (DDR) and Climate Change Adaptation (CCA) into national plans, policies and programmes to promote national efforts in environmental affairs.
Being a low-lying country, it has been projected that there will be a loss of more than 40 million square metres of land in The Gambia's coastal zone with a 0.5m rise in sea level.
Environment Minister Jatto Sillah told the United Nations Climate Change conference in Copenhagen, last December that the entire city of the country’s capital, Banjul, was at risk of being completely inundated and rendered totally inhabitable with only a 1 metre rise in sea level due to the impacts of the global phenomenon of Climate Change. That revelation struck awe in a number of those who know the implications of such.
Not only is his presence a testimony to government’s commitment, but, according to Lamin Kabba Bajo, Minister of Fisheries and Water Resources, this second edition of SOER will be a vital information source for government in its effort to promoting sustainable development while effectively tackling the ensuing environmental issues.
Mr Bajo who was deputizing for the Gambian President Yahya Jammeh said at last Wednesday’s launch that “the sustainable management of our environment and natural resources is the cornerstone for any meaningful development in The Gambia.”
Recognizing the fact that the document will also be of an important resource for academics, students and the general public, he said it also “provides good insights for all inhabitants into important issues of the country's social and economic development.”
“The ultimate aim of the report therefore,” he added, “is to contribute towards creating a better understanding and appreciation of the inter linkages between different sectoral issues being grappled with in the socio-economic development of our country."
Minister Bajo went on to disclose that over the years a functional institutional framework for the implementation of GEAP I and the sustainable management of the environment had been developed, and that the NEA, guided by the National Environment Management Council, had established effective policy coordination and regulatory mechanisms as well as an effective process of building constituency and advocacy in sound environmental management.
Focus on adaptation
Climate Change and biodiversity issues have also received increased prominence in the government’s policy direction of late. This has in fact been the common tone among the increasingly frustrated developing countries clearly fed up with the “dangerous game” emanating from Washington, Beijing and the other culpable capitals of the industrialized world.
“As our country is extremely vulnerable to negative impacts of Climate Change, there will be increased focus on adaptation actions to protect the lives and livelihoods of our people,” Minister Bajo said.
And he added: “The 2nd communication report to United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change is almost completed. Government has already associated itself with the Copenhagen Accord, which was presented at the last United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Conference of Parties held in Copenhagen, Denmark."
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