Participatory Land-Seascape Visioning in Tanbi, Allahein, and Bulock sites. The Gambia

Abstract

In The Gambia, communities are highly dependent on their natural resources for survival, contributing to their degradation. A holistic approach is required for communities to look back at how these systems have changed, their status, and envisaged future. In The Gambia, a participatory visioning process was conducted through an approach that conducted 15 focus group discussions in eight communities spread over three sites (Tanbi, Allahein and Bulock). The objective was to build consensus and develop a common land-seascape vision for shellfishing communities towards better ecosystem management.The study established that farming, fishing, and shell fisheries are the main livelihood activities, with men focusing more on labor-intensive and women on less labor-intensive activities. Activities such as farming and fish harvesting varied in different months across the year. Trend analysis revealed that activities are either expanding, not changing or declining in the studied sites based on underlying reasons such as weather conditions, migration trends, harvesting trends, and regulations. Mangroves were perceived to be expanding due to initiatives by different stakeholders to promote shellfisheries. Generally, the communities observed declining production of food, feed and fiber in the past and envisaged an improvement in the future to meet the growing demands by the community. To achieve that, it is necessary to continue promoting current interventions such as mangrove restoration and rehabilitation of degraded sites for sustainable ecosystem services generation in the future