Saikou Janko, Chairman of Kombo Foni Forestry Association (KOMFFORA), a charitable organisation that promotes the development of sustainable forestry management, has said that the Green Actors of West Africa (GAWA), a conservation network in which his association belongs, will come up with big plans for 2007.

He disclosed this to the Daily Observer during an interview. According to him, the regional network held a strategic meeting in Dakar on December 18th and 19th 2006, with a view to uplifting the protection of the environment within the different countries.

"The meeting was successful and very fruitful indeed", he asserted. Elaborating on the strategic planning, he said, the main areas to be explored in terms of conservation, include forestry, water, coastal/marine, gender and waste, pollution management. In this perspective, The Gambia has been selected as the leading focal point.

Acknowledging The Gambia’s responsibility in this new agenda, he made a strong call on all stakeholders to fight and adopt policies that are essentially based on collective participatory approaches in order to mitigate desertification.

It could be recalled that the regional network comprises countries like The Gambia, Senegal, Guinea-Conakry, Togo, Benin, Sierra Leone, Ghana, Nigeria, Niger and Burkina Faso.