The Communications and Visibility Officer of the Large Scale Ecosystem based Adaptation (EbA) Project, Mr. Sambujang Dampha, has termed climate change as ‘a national threat’, stressing the need for active participation of the entire citizenry, which is central in helping the masses adopt the measure against climate change.
He was speaking at the recently concluded three-days training on ‘reporting on climate change and adaptive measures against the menace for the media practitioners’.
To Dampha, it’s therefore imperative that raising public awareness on the menace is across all levels: community, regional and national levels.
“The level of vulnerability that our country faces in the wake of climate change, requires that people adapt to appropriate measures so that in the event hazards do occur, the impacts will be mitigated”, he suggested.
The training, he informed, aimed to equip media practitioners with the needed capacity to be able to effectively report on the adverse impacts of climate change.
EbA’s Monitoring and Evaluation Officer, Dr. Kebba Sima, told the Mansakonko gathering: “EBA project aims to support the communities to fight against the impacts of climate change. Most of the people who suffer from the menace are the women, youth and children in the rural Gambia, and they need to be enlightened on the modern methods in adapting to the impacts of climate change.” He indicated that eradicating climate change might be a daunting task, and that there’s critical need to utilize an essential method in mitigating it.
Mr. Pa Modou Faal, a board member of the Gambia Press Union, hailed the training as significant, coming at a time when the world is devising concrete means and strategies of addressing climate change.
He reminded the participants that media has an integral role in the fight against the menace by increasing the understanding of the people on the adverse impacts of climate change, through its dissemination of relevant information on its impacts.
Mr. Suma W. Jadama, in his address, described the event as an information sharing forum on the impacts of climate change, to better synergize strategies that would help EbA and co-actors in mitigating the effects of climate change within and outside the shores of the Gambia.
“Climate change is one of the devastating disasters that are hitting human and the entire biodiversity and the functionality of the ecosystem globally.
“The timeliness of the training cannot be overemphasized, as the global leaders, CSOs and journalists across the world are currently converging to devise another strategy that will replace the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change mitigation and adaptation strategy”, he held.
