Project Detail

Community coastal belt forest management project

The project aims to environmental degradation and the growing threat of desertification in the community of Kartong due to the continuous deforestation of its coastal forest by empowering the community with the necessary legal, awareness, skills and knowledge necessary to sustainably manage the resources and conserve biodiversity

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Project Snapshot

Grantee:

Kartong Association for Responsible Tourism

Country:

Gambia

Area Of Work:

Biodiversity

Operational Phase:

OP5 - Y2 (Jul 12 – Jun 13)

Grant Amount:

US$ 25,000.00

Co-Financing Cash:

US$ 5,000.00

Co-Financing in-Kind:

US$ 3,500.00

Project Number:

GMB/SGP/OP5/Y2/CORE/BD/2012/04

Start Date:

11/2012

End Date:

12/2013

Status:

Satisfactorily Completed

Project Characteristics and Results

Capacity - Building Component

Capacity building at the community level focused on leadership, advocacy ,lobbying skills and conflict management. 15 community members were trained for 3 days on lobbying skills for community rights and how to peacefully articulate for ecofriendly tourism. 33 people received training on forest policy interpretation. This was aimed at raising stakeholders understanding of the National Community Forest Act for a more informed community participation. As the future leaders, primary school students were targeted and the local school collaborated with the project to incorporate in their environment lessons, the linkages of the forest, livelihood and the environment.

Emphasis on Sustainable Livelihoods

One of the objectives of this project is to use the community forest for ecotourism activities such as bird watching. It is understood by the community that income generation through the provision of services (ecotourism) depends on a sustained environment.Thus to leave fauna and flora intact to support ecotourism, the community has decided to leave the trees alone with minimal use of the fruits. A forest enterprise development plan that focuses on income generation through the provision of services was drawn and would be implemented. Sustainable exploitation of the forest resources and beekeeping are also strategies to be used for sustained livelihoods.

Policy Influence

The SGP support facilitated the handing over of the community forest to the community. The forest would now be managed according to a management plan which was elaborated through SGP support.

Gender Focus

The project incorporated both genders in all decisions and all the activities involve are gender neutral. The long term goal is to invest the dividends from the project for village development activities and enterprises from which both genders would benefit.

Project sustainability

The project supported the development of infrastructure in the community forest for eco-tourism designed to generate funds for the sustainability of the initiative.

Notable Community Participation

This project is being implemented in a village of 2500 that is of significant ecological importance to the country. It is a very proactive community in advocating for themselves. The vision of the community is to be branded as an Eco- village and to that effect, the community has drawn up a Responsible Tourism Policy for Ecotourism. A village sensitization meeting was held for a holistic involvement of the community so as to make the management of the local forest their own. The village has a very active VDC that is instrumental in motivating the community as evidenced by the large turn out for the fire belting event. The whole village is part of this project.

Project Results

- Two-day community sensitization on the forestry act and tourism act held for 2595 participants from the community including 995 school children.

- Two day training on forest policy interpretation held for 30 participants to increase understanding and informed- participation in the management of the community forest .

- Three day capacity building training held for 15 participants(10 males, 5 females) from community institutions such as the VDC and council of elders to enhance advocacy and lobbying skills on community rights.

-Established partnership with the primary school in the village to reinforce environment lessons on the importance and linkage between the forest and sustained livelihood.

-Forest mapping exercise completed and legal registry of the identified community forest is near completion.

-1200M boundaries of the community forest fire belted and 9,150 trees planted.

-14 Top Kenyan beehives constructed and located within the forest reserve to generate income for the association.

-3 resting sheds and 2 bird watching platforms constructed and placed in the community forest.

- A well constructed in the forest reserve to provide water to visitors and for raising seedlings for enrichment planting.

- Conducted environmental schools sessions with Kartong Lower and Upper Basic Schools targeting about 1, 000 students who received lessons on various environmental topics to raise their awareness levels on environment issues affecting their communities and the roles expected of them to addressing the issues.

- 2 study tours conducted to Tumani Tenda, Makasutu and Sandele eco-tourism areas to learn first hand how these ventures are operated. Another study tour took the association members to Foni Brefet- a pioneer village in The Gambia for community forestry management to learn of their experiences.

- Kartong Community forest formally handed over by government to the community as the final step in a long process started well before SGP intervention.The SGP support facilitated the final handing over process by helping the associatio meet the final requirements.

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