By: Mariama Njie
The National Environment Agency through its GEF project has held a consultation forum with stakeholders for the establishment of local environment committees in the five districts of Kuntaur local government area.
The objective includes strengthening and supporting the decentralization process of the environment coordination and management at local level.
The meeting held at NaNA Hall brought together stakeholders from the Forestry, Fishery and Wild Life Departments, Agriculture, NGOs and members from NEA.
Speaking during the opening ceremony, Dodou Trawally Executive Director of National Environment Agency said “since the establishment of the National Environment Agency (NEA) by an act of parliament under the National Environment Management Act 1994, efforts have been made for the information of the area environment committee for each council and for each district, ward and village.”
The GEF 6 land/Seascape planning and restoration project amongst other activities plans to strengthen and support local communities as per NEMA 1994.
“As you know, decentralization is across every policy and under environment sector we have forestry policy, wild life policy, energy policy, related policies in agriculture, all of these need to be implemented at local level as well but for now the coordination is largely at the national level,” he added.
Meanwhile Njanga Touray, Director of Intersectoral Service Network at the National Environment Agency said that the establishment of the environment committees is a requirement under the national management act of the 1994 that every region or district should have its own environment committee to manage the affairs of the environment and grassroot level.
“This is meant to ensure that local committees take part in the management of their own resources,” he added.
“The consultation has two major outcomes and one of them is the propose membership of the environment committees and also the propose term of reference of the committees, we will discuss them and when they agree in the establishment of these committees will proceed to the next level,” he stated.
Stating the importance of engaging relevant stakeholders, he said “Environment is very broad and has different players so bringing them to dialogue and put our heads together will have the advantage of having a very good start when it come to the establishment of these committees.”