Draft environmental profile on The Gambia

This study, a preliminary review of information available in the United States, profiles The Gambian environment to assist USAID and host country officials in preventing such calamities and in utilizing natural resources for advantageous and environmentally sound purposes. The Gambia"s geography, climate, population, and land use patterns are described, its environmental resources assessed, and its current and potential environmental problems exposed. The Gambia is a small, densely populated West African nation with an agrarian economy based on the rain-fed cultivation of groundnuts. Its dominant geographic feature is the Gambia River, a tidal estuary flanked with tall mangrove forests in the western half of the country. Saline waters extend far upstream during the dry season, preventing the use of river water for irrigation. The Organization for the Development of the Gambia River Basin (OMVG) plans to construct a salinity barrage to increase rice production by irrigating double-cropped rice, but more census information is needed to determine the environmental effects of the barrage, as well as of a proposed dredging project between Banjul and Kau-ur and between Kau-ur and Fatoto. The Gambia"s major environmental problems are caused by increased pressure on the country"s limited land from growing human and livestock populations and include a shortage of fuelwood due to increased clearing of forests for cultivation, cutting for fuelwood, and a lack of well-managed forest plantations; and soil degradation and loss of natural diversity. In addition, water-borne diseases such as malaria and intestinal parasites are posing major health problems. The author concludes that although lacking in trained staff to implement environmental programs, the governing authorities are environmentally enlightened enough and The Gambia is sufficiently small and homogeneous that its environmental problems are manageable. Appendices include a 134-item bibliography (1892-1980), an overview of Gambian environmental policy, agencies, and law; and a list of current donor-funded environmental programs.