The Forestry Director issued warnings in LRR and CRR while embarking on a nationwide tour campaign designed to launch 30 million Gmelina seedlings across sis regions in the country.
The Department of Forestry disclosed that every region will raise 5 million gmelina seedlings, making it a total of 30 million. Gmelina seedlings will be sown at the forestry nursery beds initially.
The campaign started from Kafuta Forest Station where the delegation embarked on the exercise of direct sowing of gmelina seeds in nursery beds located in two separate nursery houses.
This landmark initiative is the first of its kind in the annals of the Department of Forestry, thanks to the current leadership.
Director Corr warned that there will be zero compromise in exploitation of the forest, stressing that bushfires give room for climate change which has a negative impact on the forest cover.
He urged the people of LRR and CRR to collectively put hands together and become ambassadors of their environment by ensuring full ownership.
“As we all know, healthy forests have a lot of economic benefits to our livelihood. Therefore, preservation and protection of our forest should be in the forefront and priority for the benefit of our future children,” he noted.
During his tour, Director Corr observed that bushfires and charcoal burning have become a habit in these two regions at this particular period of the year, informing that the Department of Forestry has taken up a new paradigm shift in preserving and protecting the forest cover.
He thus further warned that bushfires will not be as usual under his leadership. “Whereby illegal logging and other destruction in the forest become the order of the day, we have graduated from that mismanagement of our forest cover.”
He disclosed that currently the Department of Forestry has enhanced its personnel with the requisite mobility to crackdown on forest intruders into the country.
According to him, anyone found engaging in illegal acts in the forest will be dealt with in accordance with the Forestry Laws. He therefore urged district authorities not to take bushfire issues lightly, advising that anyone caught burning the forestry should be taken to justice in accordance with the Forestry Act to better serve as a deterrent. He further warned the people of LRR and CRR to be very vigilant and become ambassadors in their own regions by reporting any scrupulous engagements in the forest without any compromise.
He also advised communities to be cautious about the charcoal sellers, saying that charcoal production has been banned in The Gambia long since and anyone who wishes to engage in this business should try to obtain valid documents from any regional forestry office, or face the law.
