By: Nyima Sillah
The Director of Parks and Wildlife, Momodou LaminGassama, said urbanization is having a catastrophic impact on wildlife because their habitat is shrinking.
Gassama stressed that most of the wildlife spaces are being occupied, adding that people are encroaching on wildlife habitats such as around the Bakau Cape Point, Old Jeshwang, Tallinding, Faji Kunda, and Abuko. People, he stated, are moving into mangroves.
“These are wildlife habitats. There is no land use policy in this country which is a national tragedy for wildlife. The document it developed but has not been validated. Since there is no land use policy, meaning some areas have to be human settlements but other areas have to be wildlife settlements or other activities that are prohibited for human settlement because of the rapid increase of population, everybody wants their land,” Mr. Gassama told our reporter in an exclusive interview on Friday.
He opined that estate agencies are springing everywhere without regulations, saying any forest that is turned into a human settlement is a catastrophe for wildlife species, arguing that this is a serious problem that is rather unfortunate for wildlife.
“We are driving wildlife from their natural environment. We’re kicking them from their natural habitats and we not asking them to move to other places. This is the reason why most of the new settlements lack places like a graveyard, market, Football Park, etc because man is greedy,” he asserted.
According to him, some species like lions, giraffes, antelopes, and elephants will never come back because there is no space for them, adding nearly 20% of wildlife species are extinct.
The director of parks and wildlife stated that human beings and wildlife are competing for the same space, explaining that the population in urban areas is exploding fast and the human population is rapidly increasing.
“This has implications on human dwelling and has implications on wildlife habitat and food since wildlife areas are being encroached on daily either people encroaching for human settlement, encroaching for dumping, or farming. So, these are very important challenges that we are facing as a sector,” Director Gassama pointed out.
