Green-Up Gambia addresses urgent environmental crises. We started as a project of ‘Climate Watch The Gambia’. We launched in September 2016 in commemoration of the International Day for the Preservation of the Ocean Layer, and by 2017, as a result of our outstandingly successful activities, high profile and wide base of enthusiastic volunteers, Green-Up Gambia became an independent organization. Ever since then, we have been engaged in raising eco-consciousness in communities - especially amongst young people in rural villages, in order to mitigate climate change.
We focus on deforestation and land degradation, introducing sustainable farming practices to enhance livelihoods in an ecologically friendly way. These practices entail government accountability with respect to protecting natural resources, sustainable waste management, and scaling up tree planting by joining the Great Green Wall for the Sahel and Sahara. We have over 400 volunteers coordinated by a core team of 8, and are represented in The Gambia’s administrative regions.
The challenge:
Throughout The Gambia over 200,000 hectares have been deforested in recent decades and over 100,000 hectares have been lost to desertification since 1998 (FAO, “Action against Desertification” project website). Over the years land degradation linked to deforestation has caused significant ecological and economic losses. This has raised pressure on the existing natural resources and rising inequalities. 90% of crops grown are rain fed and climate continues to affect the local people as there have been serious changes in the precipitation patterns over the years - especially in 2011, when the government declared a 70% crop failure.
Strategies:
One of our primary objectives is to teach students about the link between climate change, deforestation and desertification. This includes how we can restore degraded land that has been abandoned due to declining fertility. The replanting will be done through raising awareness in schools and teaching agroforestry practices to pupils and among farmers (mostly women) in local communities. The main benefits of agroforestry are reversing land degradation, protecting biodiversity, and carbon sequestration. Under our flagship program, ‘One Million Trees’, we have so far planted more than 24,000 trees throughout The Gambia– reforesting more than 15 hectares of degraded lands. In addition, farming practices need to be adapted to counter climate change while limiting agricultural risks related to monoculture, and improving incomes for farmers.
These benefits are known internationally, but not on a local level among Gambian farmers. Land will be reforested in such a way that it becomes available for agroforestry in the near future, thus improving livelihoods and promoting green jobs in sustainable agriculture. We have experience in identifying and obtaining access to such lands though previous activities. Green-Up Gambia will continue reaching out to local communities through contacts with Village Development Committees and meetings with local farmers they facilitate. Women are anticipated to be the main stakeholders to engage with, as they are dominant in the agricultural sector. Local communities will identify land that is left fallow and can be reforested without conflicting with the use of agricultural land.