National Climate Change Policy of the Gambia.

This Policy, formulated under the guidance of a technical working group, represents The Gambia’s commitment to respond to the emerging climate threats and climate change effects, including increasing average temperatures and unpredictable rainfall regime, flooding and related damages to roads and infrastructure, decreased agricultural production, reduced food security, and threats to people’s health due to increasing heat and dryness. Therefore, this Policy sets out crosscutting actions and measures to implement national development and poverty reduction strategies in a climate-resilient manner. The Policy outlines institutional arrangements and a new integrated approach to resource mobilisation, and focuses on priorities in four key thematic clusters, thus emphasising the links between climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction, and improving an integrated approach to climate change issues: 1) climate resilient food systems and landscapes; 2) low emissions and resilient economy; 3) climate-resilient people; 4) coastline management under a changing climate.
The Policy outlines a summary of climate impacts and vulnerabilities in the various sectors: declining soil fertility; reduced productivity of crops such as maize, groundnut and millet; forest degradation due to consumption of woody biomass; declining of fish resources due to increasing fishing intensity and irresponsible fishing practices; risk of flooding, coastal erosion, creation of new wetland areas, and increased salinisation due to rising sea level. In order to achieve its goal and move towards its vision, the Policy is based on the following principles and objectives: polluter pays principle; sustainable development; inter-generational equity; community participation; promotion of access to climate information and early warning of climate risks; ensuring adequate climate change research; coordination of national and international financial resources; effective integration of climate change into all sectors of the country’s economy. Concerning the four key thematic clusters, the Policy focuses on the following interventions and measures: tree planting; organic farming; sustainable forest management; soil and water conservation; improvement of soil fertility; integrated watershed management; land use planning for agricultural purposes; implementation of a reliable private sector-managed seed production; encouraging agricultural diversification and farmer education to improve agricultural production; construction of irrigation infrastructure; promoting access to micro-finance to support artisanal fishermen; encouraging the utilisation of renewable forms of energy; improvement of waste management services, including recycling and composting; improvement of air quality through reduced emissions.