(Serrekunda)

Gambia: 13 Species of Wild Animals Gone 'Extinct'
Amie Sanneh
14 September 2009


The Minister of Forestry and the Environment has said that there are confirmed reports of 13 species of wild animals that have gone "extinct" in this country. He said animals such as elephant, giraffe, lion are among them.

This statement by the minister was in response to a question at the National Assembly posed by the member for Banjul South Hon. Baboucarr S. Nyang on why animals are almost extinct nowadays. Hon Nyang said in the past, the Central and Upper River Regions were endowed with lots of animals in their forest parks.

Further responding to the question, the minister explained that the disappearance of these animals could be both natural and human driven. "For much of the larger wild animals of the Gambia, the major cause of extinction has been of habitat (or habitat destruction) by basically human beings," he said.

He also added that the human population is also another factor responsible for the extinction of a large number of wild animals.

" as the population increase, so is its demand on land to settle to cultivate, and indeed to conduct all other human development needs," said Minister Cham.

The lion and the elephant, he went on, need hundreds of kilometres of land as their home range. Minister Cham further explained that once their habitat gets destroyed as a result of human activities these wild animals that require large home ranges are forced to migrate or get killed and eventually go extinct.

He however noted that there are plans to re-introduce certain species of these animals into some of the nature reserves and parks. The re-introduction of these animals, the Forestry Minister said, has both technical and financial implications.

He explained that Games reserves for viewing and nature tourism including safaris could become an additional high class tourism product for the country, thus enhancing and increasing the value of wild species.

This, he said, is why government has invited the private sector to invest in the parks since they could provide both technical and financial requirements. "As I speak we are studying several requests from some investors who have expressed interest," he concluded.


On the issue of success gained in the recent ban on chainsaw to fell trees in the Gambian the Minister in response to a question posed by the member for Niamina West Lamin Jadama, said successes have been registered. He said since the ban on chainsaws two months ago, there is a reduction of not only the frequency of log transportation, but also the number of logs transported.

He said in 2007, an inventory of chainsaws in the country indicated sixty one out of which only 16 were declared licensed with forestry department.

Minister Cham further posited that fifty six saw mills were found to be operating countrywide and out of course. These he said need to be supplied with logs for both domestic use and export purposes.

The use of chainsaw, he added, has become a lucrative business and as a result a lot of them were imported and used in our forests resulting in serious deforestation.