By: Nyima Sillah
The European Research Institute (ERI) Tuesday inaugurated Network to mitigate and monitor the effect of climate change along The Gambia River.
The European Union, GCCA+ founded project ceremony was held at Abuko Nature Reserve in Abuko.
The inaugurated network is meant to enhance effective collection and transmission of data on environmental significant events and biophysical parameters to the National Environmental Agency in order to enhance the monitoring of the sheltered coast along the Gambia River.
Speaking at the ceremony, Samba Jawo, ERI Rep in the Gambia, said: the target beneficiaries of this project are the coastal communities located along the River Gambia in the Lower River Region, adding that the project also aims to provide rural communities with alternative livelihood opportunities and income.
“For a successful implementation, it is essential for all actors to fully understand the project target goals and objectives, because of its importance, strong collaboration among the partner institutions is required,” he said.
Meanwhile, EU programmed Manager, Evangelina Blango, also said: European Union has been supporting The Gambia for a long period and in the area of climate change the GCCA project and now they have the GCCA + plus which is the follow up and the objective of the new project is to scale up and build up successes of the former one.
“As part of the current GCCA + project one of the major components was about working with the communities because the effect of the impact of climate change is touching us all and there is a great and very important element of raising awareness and working at all different levels on climate change related issues.”
Moreover, Momodou Lamin Gassama, Director of Department of Parks and Wild Life, added that climate change is a very important aspect in the coastal area because nearly 90% of all wild life protected areas are located in those areas.
“We must learn to coexistence and mitigate climate change. Gambia emits very little but we must learn to mitigate as animals are also learning to mitigate,” he said.
However, Aruna AM Jobe, Project Coordinator GCCA+ said “The partnership with ERI is a win-win situation and I hope this project launching will yield the desired results towards the sustainable protection of our coastal and marine resources for present and the future.
