Ba Nyamo Tanko live on Good Morning Gambia

In many parts of the world, March is being regarded as Seagrass Awareness Month and what better way is there for Ba Nyamo Tanko to help raise awareness than to have our very own Project Manager, Omar Sanneh, on national Gambian television sharing our project.

Omar appeared on Good Morning Gambia on 28th February 2022 to explain what seagrass is, the threats that seagrass is facing and what Ba Nyamo Tanko is trying to do about it.

To kick things off, Omar explains that seagrass, which grows in the sea, is surprisingly the only flowering plant that grows underwater.

When asked why we need to raise awareness about seagrass he stresses how important seagrass is to the overall marine ecosystem. Because it competes for attention against better known major ecosystems such as mangrove and coral it doesn’t get the attention it deserves, however, Omar believes seagrass is the most important system in the marine ecosystem.

Omar names just a few reasons why seagrass needs more attention:

• Seagrass provides food and breeding grounds for fish that local communities rely on for food and maintaining livelihoods

• Seagrass provides a natural filter for the sea to ensure the balance in acidity and nutrients in the marine environment

• Seagrass serves as a climate regulator by absorbing a lot of carbon from the environment. In fact, one hectare of seagrass can sequester 35 times more than the terrestrial forest.

Omar then goes on to discuss the threats that exist to seagrass. As well as the natural threats that most people will be aware of such as climate change and rising sea levels, he talks about the damage caused by human behaviour. The most direct damage comes from fishing methods that drag nets along the seabed and running the motors of boats too close to the seagrass meadows and cutting the seagrass. Industrial pollution that is entering the sea also significantly damages the growth of seagrass and in the case of one specific site being studied the deposits from coastal erosion is causing further degradation.

Moving on to the Ba Nyamo Tanko project, which is funded by UNEP and ICRI, was established in response to the notable seagrass degradation at sites within The Gambia. Omar proudly tells the viewers that Ba Nyamo Tanko is the first community-led seagrass restoration project in the whole of West Africa and explains how our efforts go beyond a seagrass restoration trial and aims to raise the awareness of the community and build their capacity to conserve seagrass.

If the Ba Nyamo Tanko project proves to be a success, which we have very good reasons to be optimistic about, then it will be scaled up and replicated across The Gambia

If you would like to learn more about the Ba Nyamo Tanko project have a look at our Ba Nyamo Tanko project page and keep up to date by following us on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Video source: Good Morning Gambia, 28th February 2022