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Gambia: ACCC Action Plan Validated
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AllAfrica.com
Sheriff Barry
The National Environment Agency (NEA) in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) country office on Tuesday organised a day's workshop on Adaptation to Coastal and Climate Change (ACCC) at the Baobab Holiday Resort in Bijilo.
The aim of the project is to increase the resilience and adaptive capacity of coastal communities and eco-systems to climate change in five West African countries, Cape Verde, Guinea Bissau, Mauritania, Senegal and The Gambia. The aim of the workshop was to review and adapt a report on integrated coastal area management that was developed in 2009 as part of ACCC project activities. One of the objectives of the workshop was also to discuss the action plan and the proposal on the setting-up of the inter-sectoral Coastal Zone Management Unit (CZMU).
Delivering a statement on behalf of Jato S Sillah, the Minister of Forestry and the Environment, Mustapha Darboe, the deputy permanent secretary at the Ministry of Forestry and the Environment, said climate change is a defining issue of our time and should therefore be a concern of all of us, adding that it will affect lives one way or the other and those of future generations.
He added that it is an undoubted reality and should therefore be everyone's concern. "The most threatened regions are the ones within the low-lying coastal areas, which he said we are also part of it. This reality reiterates the importance of Adaptation to Climate and Coastal Changes," he remarked.
Darboe further outlined that the ACCC project is a welcomed development initiated by the government of The Gambia and its development partners as part of strategies to combat the effects of climate change. The process, he went on, promotes the judicious use of human, financial and material resources, which include all stakeholders for an integrated management in a sustainable manner.
"The commitment of the government of The Gambia under the distinguished leadership of His Excellency Sheikh Professor Alhaji Dr. Yahya Jammeh, is evident through his numerous initiatives, such as the annual tree planting initiative, promoting parks and wild life sectors and its commitment to international agreements on environmental issues, the president's recent donation of D10M to disaster victims this month, among others, are all philanthropic gestures," he concluded.
Speaking earlier, Bulli Dibba, the director of Finance and Administration at the National Environment Agency, who spoke on behalf of his executive director, Momodou B Sarr, revealed that the project is funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) at a tune of US$ 473, 200 for each of the five countries from the period January 2009 to December 2011.
He however stated that the goal of the project is guided by the GEF operational guidelines for strategic priority piloting and that, its operational approach to adaptation is meant to reduce vulnerability and to increase adaptive capacity to the adverse effects of climate change in the focal areas in which the GEF works in this case of climate change.
Dibba further disclosed that the project commenced in March 2009 with the appointment of a national project coordinator and the implementation of the activities commenced in July 2009. He also dwelled more on the project outcome and key activities. Dr Almameh Camara from the UNDP also spoke at the ceremony.
From: http://allafrica.com, 28 September 2010.
