Momodou Kotu Cham, minister of Forestry and the Environment, has revealed that upon approval by Cabinet, his department has now introduced a scheme for the private sector to invest in nature conservation, particularly within their gazetted national parks, nature reserves and forest parks.

According to him, inviting the private sector into nature conservation, especially within the protected areas, is a major policy shift. Currently, he noted, government's policy orientation is mainly to create favourable conditions for the involvement and empowerment of local communities, particularly peripheral communities to the parks, in biodiversity and wild life schemes so that tangible benefit is accrued to these communities.

Hon. Cham made these revelations last Friday, at a press briefing convened at his office, at the Quadrangle in Banjul. The concept, he noted, could become an economically and commercially viable activity for some species in different ecological contexts and at different socio-economic levels. This, he added, would also help to assure the survival of wildlife and at the same time help to assure the survival and prosperity of the rural communities while creating new business opportunities.

According to the Forestry and Environment minister, the need for the involvement of the private sector now is due to the current state of the country's national parks and reserves. "They have been progressively declining both in number of animal species and forest cover," he stated, singling out poor management of parks, insufficient inflow of resources and lack of technical skills as major obstacles to the preservation of nature reserves in the country.

Bush fire, he said, has also been another threat to the forest and it has ravaged many parks. "As indicated in the Banjul Declaration of 1977, there has been a steady decline in animal species and numbers in The Gambia, and records also indicate that 66 species of the animals have so far gone into extinction in The Gambia, including the Sitanungu, leopard, and the elephant," Minister Cham said, adding that it was reported that the West African giant Derby Eland, the largest species of antelope, was last seen in The Gambia in the 1960s.

Minister Cham believes that a scheme in which the Gambian private sector or even the foreign capital venture get into natural resources conservation could augur well for the development and management of parks, providing the needed financial resources, and that this could also contribute towards the development of the local skills and expertise in park and natural resources management.

Additional tourism product
This aspect, the minister noted, is crucial for the country's tourist industry especially when the focus of the current tourism policy is to extend in to upscale tourist market, which natural resources have the potential to facilitate. He said this would enhance and increase in the value of wild life species and associated activities (games viewing, sport hunting or safari).

Breeding and re-stocking programme
This can help, among other things, to address the disappearance of natural habitats and wildlife resources which are due to human population pressure for agriculture and habitation. And according to him, this could increase the number of threatened species and bring back those species that have disappeared from the country's forest and parks. The scheme, he added, would also create an additional employment opportunities for the peripheral communities to the parks and the sector's contribution to the general economy of the country will be enhanced.

Propose approach to this scheme. To implement these schemes, Minister Cham went on, specific activities have been planned, and these include studies to develop the relevant policy and legal framework to guide the process. He said that to effectively manage the scheme, staff of the department of parks and wildlife management (DPWM) as well as those at the forestry department would be trained, and this would include practical attachment at certain game reserves within the region, adding that the scheme also provide room to encourage the creation of local organisations of business entrepreneurs interested in investing in nature.

To that effect, he announced, a chapter of an international organisation has been registered recently, and it is called Leadership in Conservation for Africa (LCA). Its Gambia chapter comprise members from the ground to operators, The Gambia hotel association, The Gambia Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and private forest owners. "Investment in park infrastructure, technically skilled personnel, animals for stocking and marketing would be expected to be the responsibility of the private sector, and the government would provide the conducive policy and legal environment backstopping to further ensure that the parks and animals are managed in accordance with required standards and norms," he said.

The details of the agreements and modus operandi within the parks and reserves, Minister Cham stated,  would be developed in a consultative manner to take into account the well being of the forests as the general economic well being of the country.