ANNEX VIII: COUNTRY REPORT (Cont.)
Location: The Republic of The Gambia covering 11 147 km is one of the smallest Countries in Africa. It stretches as far as 480 km wide band on each side of the River Gambia from 13 47' to 16 50' longitude west and to 13 12' to 13 35' latitude north. It is, except for its small coastal boundary, completely surrounded by Senegal.
Population: Gambia has a very high population density compared to other African Countries. The 1993 population and Housing census estimated the total population to be 1 025 867 persons growing at a rate of 4.1% per annum. 37.7% of the total population live in urban areas which grows at a rate of 6.2% through migration from rural to urban areas (Central Statistics Department, 1993).
Climate: The Gambia is positioned in the transition zone between the dry North Sudan and the moister Southern Guinea Zone. The climate is sub-tropical with two distinct seasons, dry and rainy season. The dry season is from November to May with average temperatures around 21-27C and the Harmattan wind is keeping the humidity low. The rainy season is from June to October with right humidity and average temperatures around 26-32C.
In 1985 the Government of The Gambia launched an Economic Recovery Programme (ERP) covering Institutional reform, price and trade liberalisation and the adoption of a flexible exchange rate regime. In 1986 a three year macro economic structural adjustment programme (SAP) was introduced but was in 1988 replaced by a three year enhanced Structural Adjustment Programme. The effect of these programmes has been substantial with GDP growth recovering from 12.6% in 1985\86 to 10.6% in 1996\97 and averaging 5.3% between 1997 and 1998. The sectorial contributions to GDP in 1988\89 were as follows: agriculture 34.5%, industry 11.9% and other services 53.6%.
Groundnut and groundnut products accounted for at least 80% of the Gambia's exports. The Economic Recovery Programme is followed by a programme for sustained development in 1990 in a bid to arrest the escalating economic deterioration and place the economy on a sustainable growth path. The Gambia Environmental Action Plan (GEAP), enacted in 1992, registered visible impact in arresting environmental degradation but failed to remedy the underlying structural inadequacies and weaknesses of the economy. In response to these deficiencies, the government formulated and articulated The Gambia Incorporate Vision 2020 in 1996 with well-defined macro-economic policy objectives to stimulate accelerated growth.
The Gambia is considered as a free market economy by African Standards and has instituted substantial reforms during the last decade.
The economic recovery program (ERP) began in 1985, with the assistance of the World Bank and succeeded in stabilizing the fledgling economy. At its expiration in 1989, Government of The Gambia instituted the programme for sustainable development (PSD). At present, a new and broader vision encapsulated by the Gambia Vision 2020 sees as its goal, the transformation of the country into a middle income developing country by the year 2000.
Inspite of the efforts of the ERP, rural per capita incomes have remained basically stagnant, the production base of the economy remains narrow and national income continues to depend on volatile sectors such as tourism, re-export trade and rainfed agriculture.
Macro economic growth comes with concern for environmental protection. Government has worked out a balance between macro economic development and environmental concerns. This is also reflected in the Gambia - German Environmental management project (GCEMP) plan. The environment is a priority for Government but despite pronouncements in the National Assembly, problems continue because of policy contradictions and overlaps.
With the overall decline in the business sector and production, farmers are unable to access environmentally friendly equipment and material that might help to preserve fragile forest resources. National fiscal policy is supportive of sound environmental management and the task system is providing incentives for this. The tariff system and the exchange rates take into account the natural resource base. There is a task break for business or individuals who implement innovative and sound environmental practices. More environmentally friendly fuel saving devices are now being introduced. This is encouraged by the introduction of liberal exchange rate.
SOCIAL AND HUMAN CONTEXT FOR FORESTRY
Forests play a significant role in the social-economic development in The Gambia with most of the local population dependent on it for their energy and other utility wood needs. The sectors contribution to Gross Domestic Production has been estimated at 1%. This estimate is, however, considered as a gross under-estimation because the informal sector was not taken into account, such as savings from fuelwood collection by the rural population for their own use as well as the informal un-recorded trade in forest produce. The 1993 national energy balance sheet produced by the ministry of Trade, Industry and Employment indicated that fuelwood consumption accounts for more than 80% of total energy consumed annually in the country. This is estimated to be equivalent to about 274 000 tonnes of oil equivalent (Toe). When this is considered in terms of foreign exchange savings for government, one could imagine that the GDP estimate for the forestry sector is on the low side.
The main socio-economic uses of forests are for firewood, timber and other utility wood, food, medicine and reliquaries rites. In addition, forests provide services as environmental and riverbank protection which indirectly contributes to agricultural and fisheries production.
Non-wood forest products also provide the local populations with food such as the fruits of Detarium, Dialium, Spondia and others. Wild yams (Diascorea spp) which occur in the forest also serve as a food reserve extensively exploited during the hungry season (August to October). The yams are sold for money. Incense from the Damella tree is an important source of income for women as is extensively used in traditional and religious practices. Honey from the wild had hitherto been an important source of food, medicine and revenue for the local communities. Beekeeping, honey and wax production are now important economic occupations.
Basic information on Gambia forests
In general, The Gambia forest vegetation can currently be described as `Sudan - Savannah' type. Although the vegetation on the coastal fungi's as well as those in the South West bordering the Cassamance, may belong to the Guinea-Savannah classification. Prior to 1968, most of the Gambian landscape (approximately 50%) was covered with closed forest of The Guinea-Savannah type. Although in 1983 the forest coverage was only slightly reduced (43%) (forest inventory report of 1983), the density of the forest fell sharply between 1968 and 1983. Whereas more than 60% of all the forest was described as "Closed Forest" (Johnson, 1968) only 7% of this was qualified as "Closed Woodland" by the 1983 forest inventory report. More than 70% could only be described as "Tree and Shrub Savannah" while most of the remaining was categorized as "Open Woodland". The 1983, the forest inventory placed the total forest area of Gambia as 452 000 ha.
Mangroves, which occur as a thin strip of vegetation along the main river up to about 250 km upstream and along the tributaries, cover an area of about 66 900 ha. Aerial photo studies conducted in 1968 and those of subsequent years including that of the 1983 inventory indicate that the area of mangroves remained largely unchanged over the years although localized die-backs have been reported amongst the tall mangroves in the lower middle of the country. These die-backs have not resulted in any significant changes in the mangroves areas. The 1983 inventory report categorized about 59 000 ha. of the mangroves as low mangroves (less than 7m) and these exist mainly in the Western Division while the rest of the mangroves which occur mainly in the Lower River and the Central River Divisions were categorized as tall mangroves (more than 7m).
The main tree species of economic importance for both the energy and construction sectors are: Khaya Senegalese, Pterocarpus erinaceus, Erythrophleum guineense, Terminalia Spp. Borassus aethiopum, Elasis guineensis, Cordyha pinnata, prosopis africana, and Doniella oliveri.
There exist also a large number of trees that produce non-wood valuable products of economic importance such as wild edible fruits, incense, medicines etc. Some of these include Detarium Senegalense, Spondias Mombi, Parkia biglobosa and Dialuim guineense. Most trees however have use as firewood.
The following table gives the distribution of the national vegetation in the Gambia by major agro-ecological zones.
Table 1: Distribution of vegetation (in 000 ha) by agro-ecological zone
Zone |
Dense Forests |
Savannah |
Mangrove Forests |
Gazetted Forest Parks |
Total |
Sahel Savannah, central River Division |
1.0 |
51.7 |
0.3 |
7.4 |
60.4 |
Sudan Savannah, North Bank Division, Lower River Division, Upper River Division |
7.6 |
285.8 |
45.1 |
21.3 |
359.8 |
Guinea Savannah, Western Division |
13.4 |
40.1 |
21.5 |
4.2 |
79.2 |
Total |
22.0 |
377.6 |
66.9 |
32.9 |
499.4 |
Source: - Evaluation of National Forest Inventory, 1983
The unsustainable forms of exploitations such as the extraction of wood and NWFP and the expansion of agricultural activities and frequent incidence of bush fires have changed the forests to lesser density, poor regeneration potential, lower growth incidence of undesirable grass species and lower plant species.
In 1975 a land use change study for the period 1946-1968 was carried out by the Department of Agriculture based on aerial photo interpretation. The result was as follows: the area of dense two storey forests was reduced from 28% to 3%, and the area of the woodland Savannah was reduced respectively from 31% to 5%. Areas subject to soil erosion increased dramatically from 1% to 20% (Ridden, 1991).
From 1981 to 1983 a National Forest inventory was implemented. At the same time land use maps at a scale of 1:10 000 were prepared based on interpretation of infrared tabs column aerial photographs made in 1980. The aerial distribution of the different land use classes in the five administration divisions is shown in the following table.
Table 2 : Area of land use classes per division (1000 ha) (Source:- Forester 1983)
|
Land Use |
Western Division |
Lower River Division |
North Bank Division |
Central River Division |
Upper River Division |
TOTAL |
High Mangrove Low Mangrove Gallery Forest Closed Woodland (Gmelina) Open Woodland Tree & Shrub Savannah |
4.7 16.8 1.3 16.3 29.1 15.0 |
4.3 12.4 0.2 0.6 16.0 52.3 |
5.5 22.6 0.8 1.7 4.9 38.8 |
0.5 0.1 3.4 1.9 11.3 136.6 |
0.0 0.0 1.4 0.4 1.4 105.0 |
15.0 51.9 7.1 20.9 62.7 347.7 |
Total Forest |
83.2 |
85.8 |
74.3 |
153.8 |
108.7 |
505.3 |
Fallow land Wooded upland crops Upland Crops Swamps un-cleared Barren flats Water Surface Gambia River Town Village |
11.3 12.3 60.6 1.8 1.2 6.0 4.9 7.2 |
12.5 2.6 27.0 7.9 11.2 5.8 1.8 1.2 |
27.4 2.6 68.0 9.4 15.8 6.4 5.1 2.4 |
28.1 0.5 70.7 12.2 29.8 1.8 8.2 0 |
22.8 0.0 47.8 2.2 12.7 1.8 1.8 1.6 |
102.1 18.0 274.1 33.5 70.7 21.8 21.8 52.7 |
Total non-Forest Land |
105.3 |
70.0 |
137.1 |
153.6 |
90.1 |
609.4 |
Total |
188.5 |
155.8 |
211.4 |
307.4 |
198.9 |
114.7 |
The total forest area in 1980 was 505 300 ha, indicating that 45% of The Gambia was still covered by Forests. However, by far the largest proportion of the forest land already belonged to the tree and Shrub Savannah i.e. 347 300 ha.
Philip Alirol (1983) compared the land use distribution from 1968 with the results for 1980 and came to the following conspicuous results! While the agricultural areas wee increased by 13.2% there was an equally distinct decrease in fallow land by 12.3% within a period of 12 years. This implies that former fallow land was put under permanent agricultural production and that the fallow period was shortened.
Ridder (1991) carried out a land use inventory for The Gambia on the basis of Landsat scenes and compared his results with the 1983 land use distribution. The most important results are shown below.
