Minister Dibba made these remarks at his office at Kairaba Avenue last week ahead of the World Environment Day 2020.
He added that the damage has become so severe that the whole world has come together to stop any further damage as “our continued survival in this planet is at risk. The government of the Gambia is honoured to be part of this global fight.”
According to him, the year 2020 is a year for urgency, ambition and action to address the crisis facing nature; and also provide an opportunity to incorporate nature based solutions into global environmental actions.
Minister Dibba said the year is also a critical year for national commitment to preserving and restoring biodiversity, and to provide an opportunity to ramp up to the start of the United Nations (UN) decade on Ecosystem Restoration (2021-2030), which is intended to massively scale up the restoration of degraded and destroyed ecosystem, to fight against the climate crisis and enhance food security, water supply and biodiversity conservation.
He noted that biodiversity will find a voice through thousands of African youths. Young men and women will speak out for biodiversity and take action to conserve it. He encouraged Gambian youth to meaningfully and effectively participate in the conservation of our biodiversity and for the benefit of future generations.
"The government through the Ministry of Environment, Climate Change and Natural Resources is implementing a number of important projects aimed at restoring ecosystem health and well-being thus promoting biodiversity restoration," he said.
He explained that the Gambia biological resources are vital to the populations' economic and social development. As a result, there is a growing recognition in The Gambia that, biological diversity is a global asset of tremendous value to present and future generations.
