Most of Gambia’s forest cover was categorised as closed forest of the Guinea-savanna and Sudan-savanna types. Before independence, Gambia was endowed with dense forests. However, with the increasing human population since in the early 50s, the equilibrium that ever existed started declining at a steadily faster rate as a result of the unsustainable usage such as the extraction of wood and non-wood products, expansion of agricultural activities and frequent incidences of fire. Consequently many of the forests have undergone changes, more often to secondary succession, resulting to lesser dense forests, poor regeneration potential, lower growth, undesirable grass occupation and lower plant species diversity.
Before the designation of the Department of Forestry in 1976, the then forestry unit under the Department of Agriculture concentrated only on the protection of the natural forest and the establishment of plantations.
With the creation of the Department, and the subsequent enactment of the subsection's first policy and legislation in 1976 and 1978 respectively, the young forestry service focus its attention on: -
- Law enforcement
- Issuing and control of forest exploitation licenses
- Collection of royalties
- Conservation, protection and development of forest parks (gazetted forests)
- Continuation of plantation and woodlot establishment for the domestic supply of wood products (especially fuelwood) to reduce pressure on the natural forests.
The efforts in plantation and woodlot development to supply wood products and to improve the status quo of the natural resources could not be successfully achieved as desired. This was due to the high demand on forest resources, the frequency of uncontrolled bush fire and the high cost of plantation development. Furthermore, the predicted rate of forest destruction (about 5 -6% annually), has been faster than both the establishment rate of plantations and the development of a more efficient forestry extension service for the effective and sustainable management of forest resources.
Even though there was no formal policy review, all attempts were made to shift and concentrate the administration's attention and efforts on managing the natural forests while plantation operations continued to be limited to management of existing ones.
Through such intervention and the bilateral support from the Federal Republic of Germany through GTZ, seven of the sixty-six gazetted forest parks were successfully managed through protection against the annual bush fires and through enrichment planting
The experiences gained in the management of natural forests since the existence of the Gambian-German Forestry Project (GGFP) within the Forestry service in 1980, were used to develop a natural forest management model called "The Gambian Forest Management Concept (GFMC)". The concept is an approach to conserve and improve the forest resources of The Gambia in order to supply as much of the country’s demand for forest products as possible through sustainable management.
Due to the limitations of the first policy objectives and the 1978 forest legislation for the realisation of the GFMC which aims at the sustainable and cost effective management of the natural forest resources, a policy and legislation review were undertaken in 1995 and 1998 respectively.
The new policy (1995 - 2005) aims at maintaining 30% of the total land area under forest cover and to manage at least 75% of this area.
The total forest land area, which is about 43 percent of the total landmass of the country, is estimated at approximately 505 300 hectares include the mangrove forests. Approximately 32,729 hectares, which is 7% of the total forest area, constitutes the 66 gazetted forest parks. Currently the state forestland area is the largest (78%), while no areas are identified as protection forest. Community and private forest areas, which register some 17 487 ha, are expected to increase as more state forestland is brought under the management of those categories.
The DPWM is mandated to conserve and to restore the nature habitats and their biodiversity within protected areas, and in recent also to provide direct benefits to local communities adjacent to protected areas through sound natural resources management practices and from eco-tourism. Surprisingly, the department has no comprehensive policy on the management of protected areas and the involvement of the local population. The Wildlife Act of 1977 needs to be thoroughly revisited in order to cope with the changes and challenges of the decade.
Between 1967 to date, five additional areas received either National Park or National Reserve status as shown in table 14. However, the Bao-bolong wetland reserve with an area of about 22,000 ha is not yet gazetted although this was scheduled for 1997. This reserve was designated as the first RAMSAR site. All the protected areas together cover about 3.3% of the national territory. The latest Wildlife policy aims at increasing this proportion to 5% considering a proportional regional distribution.
Forestry in the Gambia is an integrated live-support system to many Gambians and the resources contribute significantly to the living of the Gambian population. Trees and shrubs are commonly used in traditional medical treatments and for other uses. Many women especially in the Western Division, rely on the natural forests for their subsistence.
