Adaptation to climate change, coastal project launched

A sub-regional project involving five countries, including The Gambia, was yesterday launched at the Corinthia Atlantic Hotel in Banjul.

Acquired and implemented by the National Environment Agency (NEA) on behalf of the Government of The Gambia, the adaptation to Climate Change and Coastal (ACCC) project is funded through the Global Environment Facility (GEF) with counter funding from participating governments - The Gambia, Cape Verde, Guinea Bissau, Mauritania and Senegal. The goal of this project is to develop and pilot a range of effective coping mechanisms for reducing the impact of climate change induced by coastal erosion in vulnerable regions in the five participating countries.

In his launching statement, Nyada Yorro Baldeh, permanent secretary, deputising for the secretary of state for Forestry and Environment, said that climate change has become a global concern because of its expected consequences, impacts and the associated environmental hazards. These expected consequences of climate change, he added, are broadly categorised as: increase in air temperature; sea level rise from the thermal expansion of oceans; and changes in precipitation patterns.

According to him, The Gambia’s coastline is generally low-lying with Banjul projected to sink with a mere 1m rise in sea level. The destruction of infrastructure aside, numerous livelihoods and economic activities will be lost, further entrenching poverty and seriously weakening the national economy. “We are already facing serious coastal erosion problems, which could very well be attributed to climate change. These indications are indeed causes for concern that require concerted efforts by government, its institutional partners and individuals”, he said.

He further expressed hope that after the completion of the project, in addition to the integration of climate change and adaptation issues into national laws and policies, poor practices such as constructing in high risk zones will be greatly reduced as a result of a highly informed public on matters of climate change and associated consequences. It is also hoped that vital biodiversity within the coastal and marine environment will be preserved as a result of less human interference in the natural processes of these systems, which is vital to increasing the resilience of the systems to anticipated climate change.

For his part, Momodou B Sarr, NEA executive director, noted that we might have heard that over and over our nations are some of the most vulnerable countries to the impacts of climate change in Africa. This project, he said, offers a very welcomed life-line to grab and reduce these vulnerabilities to the effects of climate change, while at the same time increase adaptive capacity to climate change. “I therefore enjoin all our partners present to come forward and make this project a success,” he urged.

He added that this project is not being implemented by NEA alone, noting that the basic implementation requirements have clearly stated the importance of stakeholder participation and the replication of good practices in other parts of the country or even within the region. “Everyone is therefore invited, government institutions -  NGOs, CBOs, private sectors, coastal village committees as well as the mass media,” he concluded.

Dr Almamy Camara of UNDP stated that in Africa, including The Gambia, climate change is already having profound and irreversible impacts on economic, social and environmental systems. “This is increasingly becoming apparent from the prevalence of and intensity in the occurrence of natural imbalances and climate related disasters on the continent, including recurrent droughts, floods, erratic rainfalls and other similar extreme weather events that threaten human health and infrastructure, agricultural production and food security, water, land and biodiversity, all of which are key to human survival and economic development.

UNDP, he continued, is aware of the fact that The Gambia’s coastal area is a highly productive ecosystem of significant marine biodiversity which underpins a significant portion of livelihood opportunities of the coastal communities. However, he said, with its low-lying coast, The Gambia is vulnerable to the effects of climate change such as coastal erosion which is one of the most serious environmental problems facing the country.

For his part, Pa Ousman Jarju, United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) focal point to The Gambia, revealed that the climate change scenario for the West Africa region includes an anticipated increase in mean surface temperature of up to 0.5C per decade, increased evapotranspiration, increased rainfall variability and intensity, accelerated sea level rise of around 1m per century as well as increase in sea level rise leading to salt water intrusion, floods and coastal erosion. These, he added, constitute a significant threat to the West Africa region.

The destruction of human infrastructure and the destabilisation of rich ecosystem from high sea level rise could be very significant, and could result in serious damage. “This could cause loss of livelihoods of coastal vulnerable groups from Benin, Senegal, The Gambia to Guinea Bissau”, he said. Accoring to him, what is certain, however, is that these negative impacts of climate change will be felt more severely by poor communities, those with least adaptive capacity due to their lack of financial and technical resources.

He noted that they suffer most from the impacts of climate change as they are often directly dependent on the natural environment and coastal ecosystem for their survival along side the limited possibilities at their disposal of switching to alternative sources of income. For her part, Professor Sabelle Niang, regional project coordinator, said that the project is a crucial one and that people need to act and contribute to its successes.