A report recently quoted by this paper has revealed that over three million tonnes of rosewood were illicitly traded between West Africa and China over five years. This is said to value up to two billion dollars. One can imagine how much the country lost in this trade when one includes loss of revenue, the loss to the biodiversity and other related losses.
It could be recalled that in recent years as well the illegal mining of different types of sand and stones was always on the news. Most of the time, this was not in a positive way as reports indicated that some of the people involved in this mining were not paying their taxes as expected of them.
A recent investigation states that The Gambia is well-known for its rich biodiversity but it is severely being impacted by these kinds of illegal trades. It is true that ‘The Gambia ratified the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) in August 1977, most of the 1.6 million rosewood trees exported from The Gambia between 2012 and 2020 violated the convention.’
This trend is worrisome especially considering the fact that the country recently discovered some oil reserves and is said to be working on contracting oil companies for its extraction. What measures are in place to ensure that when this happens there will be safeguards so that this will be for the benefit of the people of the country. Not only the current generation of Gambians but also those who are yet unborn.
Using the rosewood illegal trade, the sand and stone mining for exportation, the Government should work on ways to make sure that the natural resources the country is endowed with, no matter how small, will be used for the good of the country and it’s people. It will be unjust for us to squander these resources to the detriment of Gambians who may be born later.
