By Lamin Kujabi
The Director of Department of Forestry, Abdoulie Jaiteh explained that the reason for the lateness of rainfall in The Gambia is climate variability. He noted that there is negative climate impact that has affected different countries and some countries experienced flood, strong wind storm and draught.
He further highlighted that in some instances, some areas receive rainfall earlier than others. “Also, rain could go beyond the period it is supposed to and the distribution is also affected and the intensity of the rain as well’’.
“What we do at the Department of Forestry during the rainy season is that just before the rainy season, we raise seedlings which will be distributed to the communities that we are working with’’
‘‘The department is now involved in community forestry management since it was introduced in The Gambia two decades back. We do not only hand over the resources to the communities, we also help them to prepare their management plan, do their planting as well as protection of those community forests and livelihood activities,’’ he explained.
Director Jaiteh revealed that they always make sure the tree planting is conducted on time and finished on time and they also advise people to conduct tree planting at the beginning of August to the end of August ‘’because this is the period when we receive more rains’’.
When asked why western part of The Gambia has more trees than northern part, he responded, “the biophysical natures of these regions, the western part of The Gambia is where we have Guinea Savana Forest that goes to Southern Senegal Cassamance link to Guinea Bissau, Guinea, Liberia and Cameroon while the eastern part of The Gambia is where we have Sahel savanna Forest which is a dry area’’.
“In the western part of The Gambia, you have broader taller trees while in the eastern part, you have smaller and shorter trees as a result of the dryness of that area where you also have bush fires. In the northern part of the River Gambia is where the desert is coming from Mauritania to Senegal moving down and this is why you have more desert area in the northern bank of the river Gambia compared to the western part of the Gambia,’’ he narrated.
Asked about the elderly and why they are more involved in community forest management than the youth, he explained that it is what they refer to as 7 and 70s and in most of the communities, most of the youth are gone either through back way or moved to the urban area looking for greener pastures.
‘‘Now if you go to the village, you will find children who are 7 years old or elders who are at the age of 70 and forest management requires a lot of labor and it is the youth that can provide that,’’ he lamented.
When ask about the state of the ban of timber in the country, Director Jaiteh stressed that the ban of timber is still in place and will continue to be enforce because no permit will be issued to anyone and the department of forestry will remain committed and continue to enforce the ban of timber and other loans and no document will be issued.
