Folks,

From the Focus On Wildlife Column of The Gambia Daily Observer, here is an
interesting article by Dr.Linda Barnett and Mr. Craig of the Makasutu
Wildlife Trust. Hope you enjoy it and it would be nice for those who know
about conservation of wildlife to give their opinion concerning their
suggestion of re-introducing some of our lost wildlife back to The Gambia.

Have a good weekend, Gassa


HOW IT USED TO BE - By DR. Linda Barnett and Mr. Craig

This week we are going to ask you to take a journey back into the past. Not
too far though, perhaps only a hundred years ago to around 1900. Can you
imagine what The Gambia was like back then? Well first of all there were a
lot less people here. The population of The Gambia stands at around 1.5
million people at the present time but only 19 years ago in 1983 the
population was about 687,800. That is 54% less than today, so back in 1900
it must have been much, much lower. We don't think that many people would
want to go back to how things were in those days, yet some of the things
that we have lost would be very nice to have around now. For instance The
Gambia has lost much of its closed forests. Wouldn't be good to have that
forest still here today when fuel wood is getting sparser and more
expensive? We have also los most of our large wild animals.

In 1900 the savanna woodland, with its patches of forest, would have
extended almost unbroken from the coast to the Senegalese border in the
east. Villages, towns and farmland would have existed as small islands in
the woodland. Wild animals that used roam freely across the countryside
included such magnificent beasts as The African Elephant, Giraffe, African
Buffalo and the Giant Eland. Large herds of Antelopes would have dotted the
less heavily wooded areas and grassland, including Reedbuck, Defassa
Waterbuck, Buffon's Kob,Roan Antelope, Western Hertebeest, Korrigum and
Gambian Oribi. The forests would have been filled with Bushbuck, Duikers and
different types of Monkeys, and birds would have been everywhere. There also
would have been predators such as Lions, Leopards, Hyenas and Painted Dogs,
but there would have been so much game for them to eat that they would only
rarely have come into conflict with people.

THe last African Elephant to have lived in the wild in The Gambia was killed
in 1913, where the story goes that it was forced over a cliff on the bnaks
of the River Gambia. The last wild Giraffe was killed in 1903. We do not
know when the last Buffalo was killed here but it probably survived into the
arly 1900s as did the Giant Eland that was hunted to extinction around 1926.
The story goes the same way for the other Antelopes that once graced The
Gambia in large numbers. The Reedbuck, Defassa Waterbuck and The Gambian
Oribi may still be hanging on in very low numbers, but in a few small,
isolated pockets and they are faced with almost certain extinction in The
Gambia.

Buffon's Kob, Western Hartebeest and Korrigum are all extinct, and the Roan
Antelope is restricted to one or two small herds that visit The Gambia
occassionally from Senegal. It is the same story regarding the predators.
Lions and Painted Dogs are now extinct in The Gambia, while Leopards are
only very rarely encountered in out of the way places, and hyenas are facing
ever increasing pressure and being hunted illegally wherever they are still
found. It's interesting to note that all of the above animals still survive
in reasonable numbers in Niokolo Koba (Badiar) National Park in Senegal.

But why should we want to still see these wild animals in The Gambia? Well,
ask yourself how many more tourists would we have visiting us today,
spending all their hard-earned cash here, if we still had vast areas of
wilderness dotted with large and impressive animals for them to see? How
many millions of Dalasis would that extra tourism be worth to the people of
The Gambia? Try putting yourself in the place of a European tourist who
wants to come to Africa to see animals like Elephants, Giraffes, Lions and
herds of Antelopes, and is prepared to pay lots of money for the privilege.

Where would he or she go? To East Africa, facing a long 9 - 10 hour flight,
a change in time zone, and which is very expensive. Or The Gambia, with only
a 5 hour flight, no change in time zone and where it is relatively a lot
cheaper to come on holiday? We know where we would go. If only our
predecessors had cared a little more for the countryside, we would have had
it made tofay.

But all is not lost. As we've already said, all of these animals still exist
in the wild in Senegal, as well as in some other West African countries,
such as Ghana. With The Gambia's good diplomatic relations with these
countries it should be possible to get them supply us with small breeding
groups of most of these species. We already have some large protected areas,
such as Baobolong Wetland Reserve, Kiang West and Niumi National Parks which
are large enough and remote enough to be able to re-introduce at least some
of these animals into them. We can also designate other low populated parts
of the country as protected areas and release wild animals there. It
wouldn't be easy, but the technical ability to do the job already exists in
The Gambia within Makasutu Wildlife Trust and the Department of Parks and
Wildlife Management. All it needs is a little forward thinking and a
willingness to improve our country for the benefit of all Gambians. Tourism
will bring all of us increased revenue and a better standard of living, and
eco-tourism based around wildlife is one way of doing this, alongside other
attractions such as Gambia's rich and varied cultural traditions and
history. The Gambia has the potential to become the place for foreign
visitors to travel to in West Africa and returning our wildlife can help us
to reach our full potential and improve our lives.

**************************   The End   *****************************

There is a time in the life of every problem when it is big enough to see,
yet small enough to solve.    -Mike- Levitt-




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