INTRODUCTION
In this paper, my aim is to as instructed, write a sustainability story that can be used for evoking interest in the minds of learners with a view to making them understand the different actors in a sustainability situation.
I hope to do this by giving a critical sustainability story that is a real story in The Gambia. In this way, it is my view that people can learn a lot from it and also discuss about the story afterwards. The target audience thus, will be High school students. I choose this level because prior to my elevation as an education officer I was teaching this level.
It is my fervent hope that with such a story to school children, this will trigger curiosity in the minds of the kids and also a somber reflection on sustainability. I intend to follow the EPOSEA model on writing a sustainability story so as to dissect all the actors involve in the issue.
The sustainability story that I am writing about is the destruction of Bijilo Park (Monkey Park) in The Gambia.
HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE OF BIJILO PARK (MONKEY PARK)
The monkey park was established since before the Gambia gained its independence from Britain in the year 1951. Located in the Southern end of the Senegambia Beach in Bijilo, Monkey Park has had a rich biological diversity and has been a tourism hotspot since its establishment. The park also is rich in both flora and fauna which made it a good place for educational purposes.
It is home to a lot of animals, ranging from colorful insects, birds, reptiles and mammals and even some endangered and threatened species, amongst them includes the Western red colobus monkey and the Green velbet monkey. There are also more than 300 species of birds which are so calm and beautiful, (Access Gambia).
The presence of these bird species also makes it the perfect site for bird watchers, hence earning the state a considerable amount of revenue. The area is approximately 51 hectares and despite it is located around the coastal end of the sea; it serves as a barrier to the impacts of coastal erosion.
The soil in the forest is very rich in organic nutrients as a result of the decaying plants and animals remains, this made it the ideal spot for the growth of many plant species which ranges from rhun palms, closed canopy deciduous plants and grasses which serves as food for the many insects and other small life forms found in this nature paradise.
There is no doubt that the said park creates also a lot of job opportunities to the locals who acts as tour guides and also professionals who worked there as educators. It is estimated to have received an amount of 23000 visitors a year which is in turn earning a lot of foreign currency for the government as many of these are tourist (Access Gambia, 2009).
Just walking in the park can spark a sense of relief from a day’s stress from work because you will be directly communicating with nature. Some locals also use it as spiritual place where they come close to their creator.
The park is under the watch of the Gambia government through the Department of Parks and Wildlife, Ministry of Environment Climate Change and Natural Resources (MECCNR). The significant of this place cannot be overemphasized and the story I am coming to write may turn your smile into tears because of the tragedy that befalls it few years ago.
THE IMPACTS OF INFRASTRUCTURAL DEVELOPMENT ON BIJILO PARK
Samba had been a local tour guide in the park for over 25 years. He was a school dropout, but very intelligent before dropping out of school. He was doing pure science at Armitage High School, the only boarding high school in the entire country.
Established during the colonial era, Armitage was meant for the sons of chiefs during the time but now the school is open to all and sundry. It was one of the best schools and still now continues to produce the best students who access the university.
It was in this school that Samba developed his love and interest in Biology especially Ecology. He was born in a village near Janjangbureh Town called Sarre Nyanga Village where he helped his father in the farms making him a lover of Agriculture as well. After his father passed away, Samba was in his third year in the school, and couldn’t afford to pay his school fees and was also the eldest son in the family, so he dropped out of school to provide for his mother and the siblings.
Since then the family was take care of by his sweat, even though he lived from hand to mouth. Because of his love for Biology, Samba later on moved to settle in Bijilo where he was able to secure a job with the Bijilo Forest Park (Monkey Park).
He developed a keen interest in nature and act as a local guide to tourist and local people who visit the park on regular basis. He was later on offered a course on tour operation and also Zoology by the Department of Parks and Wildlife to be able to do his job effectively. This was very helpful for him, because now he can earn a decent living.
Apart from the monetary aspect, Samba also gets so much attached to the park. He will stay at the park even after working hours enjoying the beautiful serene of this lovely park. The staff also at the park became so much attached with each other and they were now family not just co-workers.
In a sense, Samba became emotionally attached to this park. The park became a sense of home for him and a place based learning for him because any time he go on a tour in the park he learns new thing from nature.
At times even without any visitor, he still go deep in the park through the trail that runs through the park and sitting at intervals on those sits erected around the trail to enjoy nature. The singing birds, the cries from the monkeys, the different noises from the many insects, just made the place so relaxing and spiritual. He also fetch fire wood from the park, not by falling live trees but the death ones as a result of either old age or some plant diseases for fuel.
There were also some native fruit trees from which Samba eats to satisfaction. At times he will go home and tell his wife that he didn’t need lunch because nature had provided him enough from the park. The park was just the place to be as far as Samba is concern. He will at times take some nuts for the many monkeys there and they even started recognizing him from a distance just like a dog would do to his master.
Life was like this until the early years of 2015. This was a time when the Gambia government planned to bulldoze the park for the construction of a multi-million dollar conference hall, hotels, shopping mall and some other infrastructure for an international conference centre.
As the Gambia was set to host the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) in 2019, the park was the ideal place to put such an infrastructure according to the government even though the place was a reserved land which was gazette at parliament, the government was determine to go ahead.
Samba was at home on a hot Sunday evening and watching the state run TV (GRTS) until the news was broadcasted on the 8.00 pm news.
Immediately his mood changed and his wife asked what happened, when he narrated the government’s decision to de-reserve the park for infrastructure. Knowing that the government was led by a Dictator, Samba knew his life is completely shattered. He went to the park the second day but was informed of the news there too by his boss.
He asked if the department cannot do anything about it, but the Director informed him that under the current circumstances, they cannot do anything as Jammeh always meant what he says and have no regards to environment. Efforts were made by some environmental groups to convince the government to reconsider their decision but all proved futile.
The conference centre will gave the country a good look and the necessary infrastructure to attract many conferences and summits, was all the government will tell them. It seems they were not bothered about the likes of Samba and also the revenue the park is generating. The least they care about was the countless animals and plant species living in the park.
Destroying the park means destroying the habitats of these innocent animals which also have a right to life. For them, the hotels, the conference centre, the shopping mall is far better than the lives of the animals living there and that of Samba’s. So as a result, the government went ahead and started surveying the area and instructed construction officials to start the destruction of the park.
That day Samba didn’t come to the park because of the anger and frustration he was nursing not just because of his source of livelihood is being threatened, but because the home of the animals, especially the monkeys are under threat. He thought of the different plants species, the rhun palms, the oil palms, the other plant species which are hard to find anywhere else.
He thought of the numerous bird species, the various hornbills, pheasants, cuckoos, sunbirds, starlings, weavers and the remaining more than 300 bird species that do not have any other home than the Monkey Park.
He remember the friendly animals in the park, the squirrels the lizards, the fire ants, dragonflies, termites, butterflies, and among the numerous of insects and spiders which interact in this beautiful and peaceful park. Most importantly to him, he thought of the many different types of monkeys which make the park so lively and attractive to visitors. Where will all these lives live after this park is demolished? These were questions Samba will always ask and the obvious answers were that they will die.
The government went ahead and bulldozes about 3.5 hectares including the pond which was the single source of fresh water for the monkeys in the parks and the many other animals. Some environmental groups wanted to stage a protest, the likes of Green-up Gambia, Climate watch, and Earth day, the Gambia; but they knew the consequences of such a move.
They will either be shot in broad day light or else be arrested and jail because even a peaceful protest was banned during the regime of Yaya Jammeh the then President, so they back out.
Construction did not begin until after a year when there was a change of government in December, 2016 in an election which saw the Dictator packing in a shocking defeat by and Independent candidate – Adama Barrow; ushering in a new democratic dispensation. There was a sense of relief for Samba and the different organizations working so hard to protect the park.
There was a sense of hope that the new government will be environmental friendly and stick to the Banjul Declaration and many of the international treaties and protocols on the environment.
Apparently the destruction stopped for some time and Samba though that perhaps the government had changed the course of actions that were taking place under the previous government. After few months into the new dispensation, a leaked letter was seen by the members of the environmental groups and Samba happens to hear it circulating.
He wasted no time in making enquiries from the park manager as to the veracity of the story, to which the manager confirmed that it is true that the government is pressed on its aim of continuing the destruction.
This time Samba though that it is time to take action against the unscrupulous politicians who had no regards for nature. He informed the heads of the environmental groups and other UN bodies but those did not want to interfere in the country’s affairs. He discussed with the members of the environmental organizations headed by the Green up Gambia.
They scheduled a meeting in order to discuss how they will approach the issue at hand with a view of finding an amicable solution to it. The meeting was held at a lodge in Gunjur, a coastal village where the Green up executives where residing.
These meeting brought together the environmental enthusiasts, the park manager, tour guides including Samba, tourist taxi drivers, vendors around the area, students, tourists, birdwatchers, and other stakeholders.
They discussed what to do in order to halt the destruction of the park. After a two hour discussion, they resulted in agreeing to the following:
• Organized a peaceful protest against the destruction of the park
• Creating an online petition to the government to halt all illegal operations in the park
• Write to the UN bodies responsible for the protection of the environment and seek their help in the endeavor
• Meet with the government representatives to convince them to stop the destruction, and a host of other things.
They started with the latter, by meeting the Minister of Environment and Climate change who informed them that the conference centre is very crucial for the country’s outlook and will boost revenue generation, and above all the decision to bulldoze the park was signed since the last regime and this decision was from the Presidency.
They were pressed to win the environmental battle. They planned the protest on the 10th May, 2017; meanwhile they created an online petition which quickly got a lot of signatures from both home and abroad. Samba was very hopeful that this time the home of the monkeys will be saved. He also helped in the mobilization of the youths of the area for the protest.
As he was also well known by the visitors including the tourist and locals due to his sense of humor and the way he explain to them every bit of the park’s flora and fauna, he was able to get a lot of people to join in the protest.
Already the monkeys in the park were suffering as a result of the first destruction on the park which saw the vanishing of the pond which served as a source of water for the monkeys. He managed to fetch some water on a daily basis for the animals which although was not enough, but better than none.
They wrote for a permit to carry on with a peaceful protest from the police but were denied such permit because the law that was there to stifle dissent from the Jammeh era was still in place, so the government thought that they can use it to carry on with their callous act.
The environmentalist weren’t bothered, they stood their grounds and on the planned day for the protest the all gathered at the entrance of the park with their t-shirts and placards to demand an immediate end of the destructions and a complete cessation of demarcations of the place by some construction companies which were contracted to survey the place and start construction. Some of the slogans on their shirts and placards read “save the nature”, “the monkeys have decided too” and the like.
At first the police were deployed to stop them from protesting but when they saw the determination of the youths, they allowed them to carry on. They protested peacefully and within an hour the Minister of Environment and Local Government came to the ground and received the petition on behalf of the government. Since then the construction activities stopped likewise the surveying until around May 2018.
This time the government started the construction of the conference centre and but promised to leave the remaining part of the park that was not destroyed and also promised to provide a source of water for the animals in the park. This was a sense of relief for Samba and the environmentalist as well as the people benefitting from the park.
The part of the park that was already destroyed was used for the construction of the conference centre, but the planned hotels and shopping mall was cancelled instead. Since then restoration of the park had begun and water was restored in the park through the help of UNEP. Samba and his colleagues also are planting trees there every year in order to restore it to normality.
Samba was able to once again breathe and relax but not completely, because any attempt by any future government to bulldoze it will be resisted strongly, he noted. For him, the park is not just a BUSH, it is his home, the monkeys home, the birds home, the insect’s home and any attempt to destroy that home will not be taken lightly.
At long last NATURE had won a battle, but the gains needs to be guarded well because if not anything can happen in the future. Amongst those environmentalists who participated in the struggle was the Program Manager for Green up Gambia and also who doubles as a University lecturer. Two weeks back he had been awarded at the Heroes Award ceremony with the environment price.
His name is Omar. He holds a Masters Degree in Environmental Management. After he was given the ward he said that it is for all environmentalist and conservationist who stood their grounds to ensure that the environment is protected. “It shows that when we all come together with one goal and stood our grounds to protect mother earth, we will conquer” he remarked at the ceremony.
QUESTIONS TO THINK ABOUT
Below I will list some few questions which are intended to arouse students’ engagement and critical thinking.
• How do you think the park would have looked like if Samba and the environmentalist did not stood firm to defend it?
• What would have happen to the countless animals and plants in the park if it were destroyed?
• In your view, what is more important between the park and the intended infrastructure?
• One intended activity for the students also is to make a visit to the park and see firsthand information of the scale of destruction that had taken place there and also the wildlife there. In that way it will avail the students the opportunity to see for themselves what the impacts of infrastructure on our natural environment are.
BY MUSA BALDEH
Programme: M.A. in Outdoor and Sustainability Education
Course: Environmental and Sustainability Education in the Natural and Cultural Landscape
Coordinators: Ola Uhrqvist and Emilia Fägerstam
Linköping University
17th March, 2020
Musabaldeh1990@gmail.com