The deputy permanent secretary, Department of State for Forestry and Environment, has said that the environment and natural resource sector is critical to the socio-economic development of the country as 70% of the population depend on it for their livelihood.

He said the production of most food and cash crops has steadily declined over the past decades, causing impoverishment and food insecurity.

DPS Njie made these remarks on Friday November 7, at the swearing-in ceremony of 24 new environment Peace Corps volunteers to serve the next two years with the people of The Gambia.

To meet these environmental challenges, DPS Njie said the government of The Gambia set up the Gambia Environment Action Plan (GEAP) in 1991 to draw up guidelines within which all the environment and natural resource sectors of The Gambia are required to operate. As such, the GEAP, he indicated, provides the basic framework for a sound and sustainable management of the Gambia’s environment and natural resources as well as increased environmental awareness for effective public participation in environmental management.

DPS Njie went on to state that the first group of Peace Corps volunteers served in the Gambia as vocational teachers, but during the intervention period the fields of collaboration have been expanded and diversified at the request of The Gambia government.

The expertise of the volunteers, over the years, he said, include construction, auto-mechanics, agricultural research and extension, nursing, health expansion, forestry, IT and small business development.

“Peace Corps, The Gambia, in line with the government of the Gambia’s policy initiatives and Vision 2020 is currently implementing projects within three key programmatic sectors: environment, education and health/community development,” he pointed out.

In the field of environment, he noted,  volunteers worked mainly with communities and schools to promote sustainable resource management, forestry, advanced horticultural practices, environmental education, bee-keeping and carbon offsetting. In the field of education, he revealed that the volunteers taught mathematics, science and information technology in upper basic and senior secondary schools as well as providing pre-service and in-service training at schools, Regional Offices, Gambia College and the University of The Gambia.

The same trend prevails in the health and community development sector, the volunteers focus on capacity building with Divisional Health Teams and on grassroots health educational activities with special emphasis on maternal and child health, DPS Njie told his audience.

He, however, added that all Peace Corps in the Gambia are encouraged to contribute to the cross-sectoral initiatives of HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention, youth and sports, environmental education, gender and development.

DPS Njie reiterated that Environment Peace Corps have also worked to improve family nutrition, increased women’s income by extending improved horticultural techniques, put solar power in schools for light and computers, worked with national parks and reserves.

Accordng to him, they were even able to initiate National Tree Nursery Competitions and have introduced new crops like soy, nerika, fendi. He then concluded by saying that over the past years, the Peace Corps volunteers assisted 400 rural communities reaching 2,500 members of whom 2,000 were women and girls. They also trained 200 service providers, of which 40 were women and installed community gardens, wells, and pumps in over 25 villages.