The exercise dubbed -Sukuta Goes Green initiative, is the 5th edition annual communal exercise, which seeks to mitigate the impact of climate change on communities. It comes as Climate change disasters continue to pose threat to nations, thus demanding concerted efforts by all to mitigate the negative consequences on communities.
At the exercise, Babucarr Singhateh, head of the organising committee, acknowledged that the tree planting initiative made it prudent for a local community like Sukuta to lead local mitigation and adaptation methods in contributing towards addressing the adverse effects of climate change.
"Sukuta as a community remains vulnerable to the negative effects of climate change."
Singhateh also challenged local communities to embark on tree planting exercises for a better environmental management in the future.
Omar Sidibeh, head of plantation section at the Department of Forestry at the Salagi Forest Park, reminded that it is part of their mandate to protect the forest cover across the country by planting trees or joining the community initiatives to plant trees as mitigation efforts towards climate change.
Momodou Jallow, lead officer of the plantation at the Salagi Forest Park, also shared a brief history about the forest, and the tree-planting initiative and its importance towards combatting climate change in The Gambia.
Such efforts are therefore in line with The Gambia’s signing and commitment to the global framework agreements like the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (the 17 SDGs) and the Paris Agreement, both seen as landmark achievements for countries to scale up climate initiatives and reverse the current trend of climate catastrophe.
