The Tanbi Wetland National Park (TWNP) is under systemic threat from officially–endorsed illegal land grabbing and unauthorised industrialisation, this investigation by The Republic found. The story comes on the heels of the Government’s own inquiries with damning findings that only go to carry dust on the shelf.
A Task Force investigation conducted in 2025 revealed that the Department of Parks and Wildlife Management (DPWM) violated the Biodiversity and Wildlife Act 2003 by de-reserving land at Cape Point without Cabinet approval. This led to illegal private developments on land that remains legally protected, making those transactions invalid.
In Kamalo, the park was converted into an industrial zone without the required environmental assessments or de-gazetting, violating the Ramsar Convention 1971 (Convention on Wetlands). These industrial activities threaten vital fish breeding grounds and coastal flood defenses. Repeated State inquiries recommend a halt in further invasion into these protected sites, criminal investigation into the officials responsible, and retroactive impact assessments for companies within the Kamalo area.
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The women of Kamalo, near Old Jeshwang, are witnessing the death of a legacy. This site, perched on the western outskirts of Banjul, was once famed for its bountiful oysters. Today, the valuable bivalves have all but vanished.
Ina—meaning “mother” in Jola—is one of the community’s longest-serving harvesters. As she cleans fish outside her home, she recalls a different era. “Back in the day, we spent six months straight harvesting. Now, you barely find any, and the season lasts only three months.”
This year has been the worst yet. Even during the peak dry season, the mangroves were empty. “There are no oysters,” she sighs. “I tried switching to crabs, but I can’t even fill a bucket.”
The collapse is not limited to the shoreline. Omar Jeng, president of the local fishermen’s association, says the offshore catch has also decimated. The mangroves— a spawning ground for fish, oysters— are shrinking, choked by urban filth. Because the government and the Banjul City Council provide no waste management solutions, the wetland has become a de facto dumpsite for plastic bottles, buckets, and broken concrete.
“The boys go out all day, spend a fortune on fuel, and return with two big buckets of tiny fish,” said Jeng. “The government is to blame. They gave licenses to large industrial vessels to fish in a wetland. Is this the right place for such an industry?”
Banjul’s devastating floods
The 6,034-hectare Tanbi Wetland is a Ramsar protected site, designated under the 1971 Convention as a wetland of international importance. It is a critical sanctuary for mangroves (Rhizophora, Avicennia africana), migratory birds, and reptiles. Yet, this ecological shield– widely recognised as the lungs of the island city—is being dismantled by industrial creep.
In July 2022, Banjul paid a heavy price. Flash floods devastated the capital, leaving hundreds homeless. A lawmaker representing Banjul North, Momodou Lamin Bah, one of the most affected areas, said the effect of the flood is felt to date. In the aftermath, a youth-led movement named Arr Banjul (“Preserve Banjul”) emerged, demanding the total de-industrialization of Tanbi.
Their efforts were met with a heavy hand; a planned protest in August was banned by police, and activists, including team leader Ismael Mbugouma Jeng, were arrested.
While a temporary moratorium on development followed, activists remain pessimistic that the assurance will be anything more than mere paper protection. “We cannot allow our Tanbi Wetland to be butchered,” said Bah.
Trading blames
Along Bund Road, the wetland’s edge is a cacophony of heavy trucks and industrial smoke. Mangroves are marred by oil spills from nearby factories. When The Republic investigated piles of gravel dumped by developers in June last year, every authority claimed ignorance.
When contacted for comments and insight, Alieu Badjie— the Director of Physical Planning Department— merely thanked us for sharing the information but did not respond to any of our questions about the Department’s involvement in the allocations of lands in the area. “I wouldn’t know.”
Lamin Kassama, the Director of Parks and Wildlife, laid the blame at the door of the Banjul City Council and the Department of Lands. “The Department of Lands and the Banjul City Council (BCC) have done all this mess.” Kassama said, except for a SMG Dry Port partly owned by Hadim Gai, almost no industrial site on the wetland underwent an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA).
“… We wrote a lot of letters from here together with the former Executive Director of NEA (Dodou Trawally), to the Local Government Permanent secretary protesting against the foam factory there, everything. We have been there to ask them to stop but when you ask them to stop, the next day you see them with lease letters. It’s very frustrating,” said Kassama.
“All that we can do is to write. Is to protest. But it’s the same arm of government that are fighting each other. So it’s between BCC and by extension, the Ministry of Local Government and Lands. That’s Physical Planning and Lands who have done all those allocations there and they are leasing them.”
The Mayor of Banjul, Rohey Malick Lowe, denied responsibility, attributing the allocations to her predecessor under the Jammeh regime. It is difficult to establish the exact dates of the allocations, but satellite images of the sites show significant developments in the concerned areas were allocated after 2017.
She named companies like Jah Oil and various flour mills as legacy issues. However, Kassama counters that there is no evidence of prior Executive Directives for some of these sites.
The controversy deepened at the Local Government Commission of Inquiry. An Indian businessman, Nandkishore Rajwani nicknamed Nando, testified that Mayor Lowe asked him for over D20 million for a plot on Bund Road that the BCC did not even own.
The Mayor denied the allegation, but the testimony added fuel to the claims of “shady deals.” Meanwhile, Katim Touray, former Director of Planning of BCC, whose name has been at the centre of many illegal land transactions and malpractices, refused to comment.
The “missing” files
In early 2025, the Ministry of Lands formed a taskforce to investigate Kamalo. The findings were staggering: dozens of businesses held multiple allocations without ministerial approval or proper registration.
As soon as the probe began, the official “Kamalo file”—the paper trail for these deals—mysteriously vanished. Despite this, Lands Minister Hamat Bah announced the revocation of 28 allocations in “Kamalo Extension.”
In March 2008, through a Cabinet approval, Tanbi Wetland Complex was named a National Park. The minister of environment is the only person vested with the power to de-reserve or de-gazette a Protected Area including a National Park, according to section 31 of the Biodiversity and Wildlife Act.
No such approval was ever granted for Tanbi. It is also required under the National Environmental Management Act 1994 and the Ramsar Convention for an environmental impact assessment to be carried out before any industrialization of a protected site. No such environmental impact assessment was carried out before Tanbi was demarcated into an industrial zone by the Ministry of Lands.
The industrialization of this Ramsar site which benefits only a well-connected few remains a violation of the National Environmental Management Act 1994, Biodiversity and Wildlife Act 2003 and the Ramsar Convention 1971.
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