The Gambia on Tuesday launched two ambitious projects — the Great Green Wall RECOSERV and the FARM-Plus initiative. On paper, they are impressive. Five years, 43,000 hectares of forest and wetland to be restored, 38,000 hectares of protected areas better managed, 36,000 hectares of farmland turned sustainable, and nearly 800,000 lives to be touched.
We have heard such numbers before. What The Gambia needs now is not another colourful launch at the Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara Conference Center, but a break from the cycle of launch, plant, forget.
Our environment is in crisis. Forests are disappearing for charcoal and settlements, wetlands are being filled, soils are exhausted by overuse of harmful chemicals, and rains are becoming more unpredictable. For a country where the majority still depend on land for food and income, this is an existential threat.
That is why these two projects matter. Their logic is sound and interconnected: RECOSERV seeks to restore the ecological foundation — the land, water and biodiversity — while FARM-Plus aims to change how we farm on that land, making agriculture less chemical-dependent, more resilient and more profitable.
As Minister of Agriculture Demba Sabally rightly noted, the Great Green Wall is more than a wall of dreams. It is about securing our soil and water. Planting trees is easy; ensuring they survive is what truly matters.
This is where past projects have failed. Survival rates of planted trees remain low. Farmer training ends with workshops in hotels, not adoption in fields. Monitoring is weak, community ownership is rhetorical, and funds are lost in bureaucracy.
If these projects are to succeed, three things must change.
Implementation must be decentralized and community-led. Women, youth, farmer associations and local authorities are not just beneficiaries to be listed in project documents; they must be custodians and decision-makers.
There must be ruthless accountability. The NEA, as executing agency, must publish milestones, expenditure and survival rates. We cannot afford another GEF-funded project that ends with glossy reports but no living forest.
Synergy must be real, not just in speeches. You cannot restore land with one hand and degrade it with unregulated sand mining, uncontrolled agrochemical imports and weak enforcement of environmental laws with the other.
The Vice President said environmental sustainability and agricultural transformation are mutually reinforcing. He is correct. We cannot achieve food security on dying soils and we cannot protect ecosystems while farmers remain trapped in poverty and harmful practices.
Tuesday’s launch should therefore be the last fanfare. What we need from today is work in the fields, forests and wetlands — and results that Gambians can see, taste and live from.
The promises have been planted. Let us ensure they grow.