Dawda Badjie made the statement over the weekend following the launch of 5,000 coconut seedling Coastal Green Up initiative by Brikama Area Council in collaboration with National Environment Agency and the Global Climate Change Alliance GCCA+ at Tanjai.
He informed that over 60 per cent of The Gambia’s population lives in around the coastal zones – measuring about 80 kilometers of an open zone line and a 200 kilometer of the center zone. He further warned that this could easily disappear in the near future if concerted effort to protect the coastal zone of the country is not considered.
“It is important to know that The Gambia has a very small coast line,” he reminded. “So if something is not done to protect the existing destruction of the coastal zone, in the near future, no one will be living around the coast.”
He revealed that the Coastal Green Up programme which is initiated by the NEA in partnership with the Brikama Area Council is aimed at making it resilient by protecting the country’s coastal zone. He added that the dwarf coconut seedlings have the potential to preserve the coastal zone of the country.
“The Agency in collaboration with Brikama Area Council has come up with the initiative to green up the entire coastline of the West Coast Region which will also be extended to other regions of the country in the future,” he further revealed.
The initiative is mainly to preserve our threatening coastal zones which the NEA says are at a risk of disappearing due to continuous human activities.
