By Samsideen Ceesay
The department of parks and wildlife management has recently embarked on environmental regeneration exercise at Tanbi National Park in the outskirt of Bakau.
The mangrove planting exercise according to the organizers is meant to restore the ecosystem as well as restore the biodiversity of the wetland in the country.
Speaking at the tree planting exercise, the minister of environment, Lamin B Dibba, 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.”
Minister Dibba 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.
“As a government, we are 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: “Since it is the launching of 2017 mangrove planting exercise this exercise will continue in other communities and to ensure the general ecosystem and ecology is restored”.
Also speaking at the planting exercise, Lamin Jawara, permanent secretary, ministry of environment, climate change and natural resources said this is not the first time “we are embarking on mangrove restoration planting program. This year it is special in the sense we have a new minister who is participating in the mangrove planting exercise”.
“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. This is an encouragement for us to continue this exercise”.
