By: Muhammed Lamin Drammeh
Omar Malmo Sambou, environmentalist and climate change activist, has commended sensational Gambian rapper Sanna Sighateh, who goes by the stage name ST, on his foundation’s free tree planting initiative which is meant to mitigate climate change in the country.
Omar told The Fatu Network that the tree planting initiative by the ST Foundation will increase environmental consciousness and environmental restoration. He explained that planting these trees in different parts of the country will assist in restoring devalued ecologies and biodiversity loss if the trees rooted reach their growth.
“The activities will help in restoring our degraded ecologies, increase our climate resilience capabilities, and reduce biodiversity loss in the long run if the planted trees grow,” he explained.
According to Omar, these activities will help in building a climate society in The Gambia.
He added that if the Gambia has more people doing what ST is doing, the Gambia’s greenery will be thoroughly restored. He also praised the artist and his foundation for involving in such an adventure that will boost the country’s ecosystem. He noted that the current approaches to solving environmental issues are not effective.
“Current approaches to solving our complex environmental problems are neither effective nor timely. However, the involvement of the biggest artist will give a greater impact on our quest for ecological restoration for improved ecosystem health and vitality,” he narrated.
ST Brikama Boyo, the multiple award-winning Gambian artist and his foundation launched a tree planting initiative across the country with a plan of planting one million trees in five years.
According to the Secretary General of the ST Foundation Environment Award, Ismaila Fadera, the foundation has planted over ten thousand trees from June 25 to date in fifteen different areas in the country and still counting.
Ismaila said that the biggest threat the country is faced with is climate change, thus the foundation deemed it salient to plant trees that will help reverse the impacts of climate change.
“In the long term, we hope the trees we are planting will help reverse the effects of climate change and help restore our lost forest cover. Part of our aims is to inspire more environmental conservationists,” the SG told TFN.
Fadera called on communities where these trees are planted to take ownership of them.
