A three day capacity building training for strengthening local enterprise development of beekeeping and Eco-Tourism groups on business skills and management was recently concluded at the Forestry Training School in Kafuta village.

In this capacity building training, participants were drawn from the three administrative regions comprising of 586 compounds with a total population of 9,084 people representing twenty-two (22) community forest areas. The beneficiaries of the project are women, children and men.

According to Kanimang Camara, the Director of National Consultancy on Forestry Extension and Services (NACO), since the initial national capacity has been created, his organization initiated to develop the capacity of Honey and Eco-Tourism Interest Groups in the 22 CFA and 2 Eco-Tourism sites in the three Regions and secured funding from the Livelihoods Diversification and Enterprise Development (LDED) Sub-Programme of FAO.

He said this mini-project from LDED intends to address participatory training in general business management (Financial management, marketing management, human resources, organizational management) monitoring and evaluation, creation of strategic alliance between money and Eco-Tourism interest groups, service providers and support institutions. Camara said the primary objective of this mini-project is to build further the capacity of the communities, and interest group on money and eco-tourism on general business management (financial management, marketing management, human resources, and organizational management).

NACO director however pointed out that the development objective of the mini-project is to create linkages for strategic alliance between the community-based enterprises on money, eco-tourism and service/support providers (micro-finance institutions, training and clients) that contribute to improve the livelihood of the rural population and create incentives for sustainable management of Forest in The Gambia.

He further disclosed that the process was participatory and informal adult learning process using live cases, visualization, group discussions and presentations.

Participatory Forest Development in The Gambia has reached a stage at which forest utilization and forest products marketing become more and more important, not only for benefits of communities but also for the Participatory Forestry Program in general. More than 600 villages are actively involved in Participatory Forest Management, covering a total land area of 26,000 hectares, Camara disclosed.

In 2001-02, he said a pilot application of the Market analysis and Development (MA & D) methodology for Community-based Enterprise Development in the Western Region of The Gambia, and in 2003-04 a 18 months FAO Technical Cooperation Program in two other Regions (LRR, CRR), have proven successful in the involvement of concerned community members in the selection process of viable produces through adapted resource and market surveys.

The Forestry Department is supporting the activities towards community-based forest enterprise not only through the enforcement of the Forest Act and regulations for participatory forest management, but also with a serious personnel and institutional commitment, he revealed.

Camara, FAO’s Gambian local expert said through the adoption of this methodology the 22 Community Forest Areas (CFA) initiated, production and trade activities have generated significant income and made positive impacts on the way they mange their forest resources. This allowed them to realize the benefit of expanding these activities, but further support is needed to strengthen Enterprise Development capacity and to consolidate forest protection, social organization and economic gains.

The results of participatory review and assessment of the implementation of Enterprise Plans conducted during the training indicated that villagers are committed on resource protection, unfulfilled promises made by some service providers affected the running of the enterprises, and villagers decided to use honey product (e.g. candle, body cream, soap etc from wax) but lack the technical skills. The training is conducted in close collaboration with the Forestry Department staff assigned to enterprise development skills.

The training is conducted in close collaboration with the Forestry Department staff assigned to enterprise development to ensure sustainability and future monitoring and evaluation.