The Sahel region of West Africa, where The Gambia is located, has been significantly impacted by climate change. Rapid population growth has also altered the country’s land cover and its land use. Less rainfall leads to low agriculture yields and an impact is land degradation, making agriculture and other land uses less productive, leading to food insecurity as a human risk. The expansion of residential settlements, in some cases, has resulted to conflicts between real estate agents, farmers, and pastoralists.
Following the successful completion of the project “Climate Change and Land-use Management in The Gambia” (CCLUM)
the project “Feasibility Study on Climate Change, Land Use Management, and Renewable Energy in The Gambia” (RECC-LUM) undertaken by the Research and Transfer Centre "Sustainable Development and Climate Change Management " at the Hamburg University of Applied Sciences, Germany, University of the Gambia (UTG) and the WASCAL Competence Centre on Climate and Environmental Services, supported by the The Gambia Ministry of Higher Education, Research, Science, and Technology (MoHERST), and funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) focuses on sustainable land management practices within the Gambian agricultural landscape and the role played by using renewable energy in the process.
In this context, RECC-LUM will support efforts to enhance the demarcation of land boundaries in The Gambia and relate it to the extent to which renewable energy may be used in the income-generation process. It will undertake surveys to investigate land use approaches and the effects on relevant socio-economic indicators such as rural employment, income structures and also the provision of ecosystem services for the Gambian society, with a special emphasis to the potential role to be played by the use of renewable energy. This feasibility study will be performed over a 24-months period, leading to guidelines for policy-makers and a report with recommendations for further studies and projects.
