By Ramatoulie Jawo
The Minister of Environment, Climate Change, and Natural Resources, Rohey John Manjang, disclosed on Wednesday that only portions of three forest parks have been degazetted since 2017.
Minister Manjang made this statement during a question-and-answer session at the National Assembly. She was responding to a query from Musa Badjie, the National Assembly Member for Talinding, who asked her to explain the considerations behind the government’s decision to reduce forest cover for other departmental initiatives.
Explaining the legal framework, the minister cited Section 22 of the Forest Act 2018, which grants the Minister authority to degazette forest parks. According to this section, the Minister may, through a notice published in the gazette, declare that specific lands designated as forest parks will cease to hold that status from a named date.
She further emphasized the role of Cabinet approval, as stipulated under Section 14(6) of the Biodiversity and Wildlife Act, Cap 62.01. This provision specifies that no Protected Area, including national parks, can be degazetted without the consent of the Minister and Cabinet approval.
Minister Manjang assured lawmakers that the degazettement of forests or portions thereof follows the legal guidelines passed by the National Assembly. She added that such decisions are made in the national interest and to support development initiatives.
“Since 2017 only 3 portions of 3 forest parks have been degazetted. Firstly in February 2022 17.5 hectares of the 941 hectares of Pakala Forest Park in Chamen, NBR, was degazetted and transferred to NAWEC as part of government’s counterpart contribution for the NAMA project solar plant that was to have a capacity of 10.5MW,” she said.
She emphasized that although the project could not move forward as planned, the land remains available for other interested investors willing to develop the solar plant under a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) framework.
“Please note, the purpose is mainly to implement our climate mitigation actions of our NDC and LTS. Secondly a portion of Bijilo forest park was degazetted in February 2024 the Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara International conference Centre is built on land that is part of the International Trypanotolerance Center however access created from the conference centre to the beach separated the then entrance of Bijilo forest park from the rest of the park resulting to the relocation of the office to a new site,” she added.
Minister Manjang announced the allocation of 7.3 hectares of Bijilo Forest Park, earmarked for purposes outside the park’s operational scope and inaccessible to both staff and visitors.
She explained that, in February 2024, a portion measuring 2.6992 hectares of the designated 7.3 hectares—located behind the conference center—was officially degazetted and transferred to the Gambia Tourism Board. This land is intended for the development of a luxury hotel and an adjacent administrative complex.
“The 2.6992 hectares degazetted is 5.0% of the total areas of Bijilo forest park the above two degazetting is in the total of 20.2 hectares of portions of the 2 forest parks 17.5 hectares to boost our electricity generation capacity and 2.7 hectares to boost our tourism infrastructure. The third portion degazetted as explained during my last appearance here 82.5 hectares of nyanieri forest park during the 2014 meet the people tour former president Yahya Jammeh gave directives for the settlement of the people from Jabisa village parts of Nyanyi Bareh Forest Park,” she explained.
She noted that the Ministry of Lands had been tasked with developing a settlement plan and formalizing the settlement process. As part of this mandate, the ministry prepared a map outlining a 200-hectare area designated for the settlement.
However, she explained that before the administrative procedures could be finalized, a change in government occurred in December 2016. By that time, individuals had already begun encroaching on and settling in parts of the Nyanibereh Forest Park.
“Based on the fact that it was a presidential pronouncement and that a good number of people had already encroached and fully settled in parts of the forest, attempts to restore this part of the forest would involve forcefully evicting families from land they were allowed to settle on by the government of the Gambia causing them economic loss and hardship which is against climate mitigation objectives,” she said.
In August 2023, the Cabinet resolved to formalize the process and implement measures to curb further encroachment on the forest reserve.
Addressing lawmakers, she revealed that the decision approved the degazetting of 82.5 hectares of the forest for settlement purposes, significantly reducing the initial 200 hectares proposed by technical experts. This leaves a remaining balance of 1,050 hectares of the forest intact.
“It is important to note that the Gambia only contributed 0.01% towards the climate crisis and therefore as much as we are committed to responded to the Paris Agreement in line with our common but differentiate responsibility government equally understands that the same Paris Agreement support development growth noting and agreeing that developing countries will obviously need carbon space to achieve their SDGs in progressive but responsive manner,” she said.
The official informed lawmakers that the government has signed a gazette order formalizing the establishment of 29 community forests. These forests collectively span a total area of 2,331.2 hectares.
“Which is almost 23 times the area degazetted Hon Speaker for every hectare of forest land that this Government has degazetted strictly for national development purposes it has gazetted 23 hectares of forest land as a wise planning strategy to achieving our development goals alongside our NDC targets,” she emphasized.