By: Nyima Sillah
Omar Malmo Sambou, an environmentalist and lecturer at the University of The Gambia, has stated that the Gambia is complicit in the rebellion in Casamance because timber there is smuggled and exported through the port in Banjul.
In exclusive with The Voice, he rebrands it as timber re-exports trade and this is basically something that the forest act needs to look into, disclosing that the Gambia is the biggest exporter of timber despite having legislation and regulations on timber banned.
“It is ironical that in the legal instrument you banned timber logging but you are the biggest exporter of timber and the Gambia deliberately re-name that trade as timber re-export trade and obviously or evidently no country export timber to the Gambia that the Gambia would have to re-export to China or elsewhere,” he said.
According to him, despite the Gambia having legislation or regulations that definitely banned timber logging the country is the biggest exporter of timber which is the life blood of the rebellion in Casamance therefore the Gambia is complicit in the rebellion in Casamance.
According to him, if you look at the forest policy where in the Gambia one cannot burn charcoal, one cannot get into logging but the sales of timber and timber products is acceptable.
“This is quite ironic if you tell me your country cannot burn charcoal and you cannot cut timber but you can sell timber and charcoal where do you get it from? So that’s basically a bigger question that some of these policies do not address.
“If Gambia intends to import some of these resources from elsewhere that will be interesting because Senegal don’t export charcoal into the Gambia and Guinea Bissau also don’t export timber into the Gambia so some of these things are smuggled into the Gambia and therefore in one way or the other, the Gambia is eating wood thief or wood products that are been smuggled into the Gambia,” he said.
However, he said some policies need to be reviewed and required proper review so that the Gambia can have effective and efficient environment laws and regulations that will fit for our society and the seek for sustainable development.
