It is a common believe that responsible tourism goes with proper enviromental management, and if communities are to benefit more from the tourism sector, proper management of the Flora and Fauna must be considered.

Conscious of the fact that the environment plays a preponderant role in tourism, the people of Kartong in collaboration with ASSET climate committee, last Saturday embarked on a tree planting exercise at Sandele hotel in Kartong. Over 3,000 trees were planted and the species included Gmalina, Cashews and Jatraphas.

In a press briefing, Jeri Michell, the co-proprietress of Sandele hotel, disclosed that the whole idea of the tree planting exercise is to create a fire belt around the hotel. She also asserted that, they  will do their best to protect the environment;

For his part, Maurice Phillips, co-proprietor of Sandele hotel, explained that trees like Jatraphas seed produce oil that can be used to generate fuel and it does no harm  the environment. He then added that the water table in certain parts of The Gambia is very deep due to the scarcity of  trees.

This tree planting at Sandele was the third  planting exercise of the Association of Small Scale Enterprise in Tourism (ASSET) climate committee in this year’s rainy session.