Women and youths in coastline of the Western Area Rural District have consented to doing their market gardening in mangrove swamp areas while others keep cutting down the ancient trees for wood sales, to ensure survival.
This was revealed to The Nature Newspaper during environmental news search by our reporter, in an interview with women and youths in the aforementioned district, they raised numerous concerns as follows “the coastline swamp areas where we have been doing our gardening have all be sold for housing” Youths at the Tombo community, a fishing hub have recently been engaged in cutting down trees for wood, this according to the reports, has become desperate on the act round the clock. They told our reporter, “we don’t have other means of survival outside cutting down the mangroves”, said a youth leader. Reporters show that woods from the trees are rowed in canoes to other fishing communities along the coastline of the Western
Area Rural District and are used for smoking fish in the said areas.
At Rokel and Devil Hole communities, massive destruction of mangrove swamps has taken place. Madam Sallay Thoronka, a mother of five, said that she and her colleague gardeners have resulted in using mangrove swamps areas to continue their trade. “we have no other means of making ends meet except doing our vegetable gardening at the mangrove swamps,” she said, while maintaining that local authorities have sold the swampy lands for building construction and that for her friend and families to survival, they have resulted in mangrove areas to make ends meet. Sallay furthered that the previous year, they worked on one area without knowing that the place had been sold. Later the buyer came and seized their crops and the authorities had nothing to do to salvage the situation.
At Rogbangba community, vegetable gardeners said,” we are afraid that, the encroaching coastal mangrove swamps land might be sold also by our local authorities whose act might someday make us destitute. Gardening is our only means of income generation as a family and we’ve been on this over the years,” said Albert Morgan, a medium age looking man in weather beaten clothes,” people buy coastal swamps without doing nothing there, but shout on us who want to use them to upkeep our survival,” he lamented.
Mr. Alhaji Hassan Turay Rokel Community headmen, in his comment on the issues of wet land sales, denied of having direct hands on the act of selling lands in protected areas. Mr Turay went on to state that he as a custodian of local law, only overseas people within his jurisdiction.” I don’t own land here, the people who say they are land owners do what they deem fit on those lands,” he said. He however admitted that he usually signs land documents that are brought to him, not as a seller but as a local authority witness ;”I don’t have to disapprove with what people claim to own, there is an institution tasked by law with the responsibility to administer lands in the country “,he added.
Responding to a question of knowing that the areas that his people are doing their vegetable gardens are environmental protected areas, he sharply replied, “government has not given me any form of authority to protect such areas youths here are very desperate when it comes to what they have to do for their survival” , said Mr. Alhaji Hassan Turay.
