By Omar Bah
The department of parks and wildlife management has recently embarked on environmental regeneration exercise at Sifoe beach side in the outskirt of Brikama.
The mangrove planting exercise, according to the organizers, was meant to restore the ecosystem as well as restore the biodiversity of the wetland in the country.
Speaking at the tree planting exercise, Abdoulie Sakho of the department of parks and wildlife said the planting excise was funded by the NEMA project and implemented by the parks and wildlife in partnership with BAJ and others.
He said the excise is meant to minimize salt intrusion, promote fisheries bio-diversity and other aquatic lives, “because lot of marine mammals feed on these mangroves, equally also lot mammals use it as a habitant. Mangroves also have other very important effects.”
He said: “Mangrove planting in the degraded area is an urgent agenda of the government. There are lot of bags affecting the river Gambia and other associated areas. The importance of mangrove cannot be overemphasized as mangroves play an important role in the well-functioning of the ecosystem.”
He pointed out that Mangroves have some economic benefits and “it is important to restore the degraded area and to ensure the sustainability of the ecosystem.
“The parks and wildlife is committed to restore the biodiversity of the wetlands in the Gambia through regular planting. It is important as a government we support communities that are vulnerable,” he added
He said this is not the first time “we are embarking on mangrove restoration planting program. Since we last undertook this exercise lot of improvement has been seen not only in this site but different parts of the country where we participated in the restoration of the mangrove planting exercises.”
