In 1987, former US Senator Gary Hart, who was the leading candidate in the US presidential election, snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. Although Hart had a solid lead over his rivals in opinion polls, his campaign was plagued by rumors that he was having affairs with other women. In the end, incontrovertible evidence of his infidelity was presented to her, and he quickly announced the end of his candidacy for the White House. Just weeks after he withdrew from the presidential race, a photo showing his girlfriend, Donna Rice, sitting comfortably on her lap aboard a private yacht called Dirty game was published.
In recent weeks, the people of the Gambia have witnessed a monkey business of a different kind than Senator Hart’s, but a monkey business nonetheless.
On October 26, 2022, the Gambia Attorney General’s Office (AG) issued a press release announcing that the Government of The Gambia had signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) with the Government of the United States of America for the latter to acquire property to build a permanent “state of the arts” [sic] Embassy in Gambia. The press release also indicated that the proposed embassy site would be on a 10 Ha (25 acre) piece of land currently occupied by the West African Livestock Improvement Center (WALIC), and that it would not adversely affect the Bijilo Forest Park, which is located next to WALIC. In addition, the US government would bear the cost of relocating WALIC and building a new Visitor Center for Bijilo Forest Park.
As soon as the ink was dry on the press release, the fuss began! Thus, the Gambia Environmental Alliance (GEA) and the Sustainability Alliance (SAG) condemned the sale of land to the US government. Environmental groups also claimed that the Gambian government also included the Bijilo Forest Park, commonly called Monkey Park, on the land to be sold to the US embassy.
However, environmental groups launched a massive social media campaign, and started a petition, accusing the Gambian and US governments of collusion to destroy Monkey Park, which was officially published in 1953 and is a refuge for wildlife and nature in an area that, due to the urbanization, is increasingly becoming a concrete jungle. Monkey Park is home to the endangered western red colobus monkey, and more than 133 species of birds have been recorded there.
Opponents of the sale of the WALIC facility to the US government were particularly outraged that in 2018 they defeated the Gambian government’s attempt to build a 5-star hotel in Monkey Park. His sense of victory, however, was short-lived because in 2019, the Gambian government extracted 14 Ha of Monkey Part to build the China-funded Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara International Conference Center. In April 2022, the Gambian government dispelled rumors that it had assigned Monkey Park to the United States Embassy in The Gambia.
Neither the Gambian government nor the US embassy could afford to ignore the pressure being exerted on them by environmental groups, and the public outrage expressed on social media over the planned sale of WALIC land. On November 1, 2022, the Forestry Department issued a press release denying GEA’s allegations that Monkey Park was part of the land that was to be sold to the US government. The Forestry Department said that, to the contrary , not “an inch” of the proposed US embassy would affect Monkey Park. However, some experts consider the proposed US embassy site to be “functionally linked” to Monkey Park and as such there should be a full impact assessment of the proposed US embassy in the park, and a strategy to mitigate its impact on the park before construction begins.
A former Gambian Agriculture Minister strongly criticized the decision to use the WALIC site for the new US embassy multi-stakeholder committee to investigate the issue, calling on the public to allow the committee to do its job. Otherwise, he said, people would act as if they were “subjects and rulers” at the same time. You know you have a problem when your Minister starts talking about issues in terms of subjects and rulers.
For its part, the US Embassy in The Gambia met with GEA and other environmental groups to hear their concerns about the proposed acquisition of WALIC facilities to build its embassy. Additionally, the US Embassy responded to so-called “Frequently Asked Questions” (FAQs) about their plans to build a new embassy on the WALIC site, and managed to speak out of both sides of their mouths.
For one thing, the US Embassy said that the technical evaluation would “determine whether the site was suitable,” meaning that the decision to locate the embassy at the disputed site has not been finalized. On the other hand, the same FAQ document said that the results of the survey and in-depth “due diligence” analysis of the proposed embassy site will form the basis for its design, meaning that the decision has been made to have the embassy on the WALIC grounds.
The US Embassy continued to engage Gambian environmental groups and held another consultative meeting with them last November. The outcome of that meeting must have been a relief to the US Embassy because GEA, one of the most vociferous groups opposing the location of the new embassy, issued a statement saying that the new US embassy The proposal would not affect Monkey Park.
The US Embassy also assured Gambians that they are committed to being transparent about their plans to build a new embassy, and to that end, they will provide the public with regular updates and consult with Gambian environmentalists. In addition, they would establish an advisory body, and the US Ambassador to The Gambia pledged to sign the “US Department of State Green Department of State”. [sic] Promise of diplomacy”.
The US State Department’s Green Diplomacy Pledge is, of course, not the only commitment that the US Embassy in The Gambia must honor. As one of 22,000 State Department facilities worldwide, the US Embassy in The Gambia is also subject to various US environmental laws and executive orders, as well as international laws that USA subscribe. Two noteworthy legal provisions in the case of the Monkey Park saga are the US Endangered Species Act (ESA) of 1973, and Executive Order 12114 issued in 1979 by Former US President Jimmy Carter. While the ESA provides for the conservation of threatened and endangered plants and animals and the habitats in which they live, Executive Order 12114 addresses the environmental effects of major US government actions abroad. such as the construction of a new embassy.
The Gambia, of course, has laws and institutions responsible for protecting the environment and safeguarding the country’s biodiversity. As early as 1977, the Gambian government issued the Banjul Declaration on the protection of the country’s flora and fauna. In 1994, the National Environmental Management Act (NEMA) was passed, which laid the foundation for the creation of the National Environmental Agency (NEA), along with provisions requiring the assessment, auditing, and monitoring of the environmental impact of major projects in the country. .
And therein lies the problem because the NEA, nor the Gambian government, are no match for the US Embassy. The relationship between the US government and the Gambian government is clearly not one of equals; Gambia being the weaker party. For this reason, the uproar over the location of the proposed new US Embassy in The Gambia, near Monkey Park, must be seen in the context of asymmetric diplomacy.
All nation states, since the Peace of Westphalia of 1648, have been considered equally sovereign, and the United Nations Charter recognizes the sovereignty of individual states. Despite this, some states are more egalitarian than others, and small countries like the Gambia have to live with this reality. As in the Peloponnesian War (431-404 BC), the Athenians told their weaker enemies, the Melians, whom they killed, “the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must”.
But asymmetric diplomacy does not always mean that weaker nations suffer the wrath of strong nations. In fact, Korea survived for 2,000 years as an independent state alongside its much stronger neighbor, China, by effectively managing its asymmetric diplomacy, thus saving itself from being swallowed up by China as it did Tibet, the Uyghurs, Inner Mongolia and Manchuria, to name a few. . Iran has also successfully used asymmetric diplomacy in negotiating with the P5+1 countries (including the US and the UK) over its nuclear programme.
The Gambia can learn from Korea and Iran and exploit the asymmetrical relationship with the US to its advantage. First, Gambian environmental groups should have teamed up with US environmental and animal rights groups to take on the US government where it matters most: in US law courts and in the court of public opinion. Suing the US government on behalf of and/or in the interest of the monkeys in Monkey Park would have set the US government on its feet.
The Gambian government could also have handled the matter better by being transparent from day one. For example, the Gambian government could have borrowed a page from the US government playbook and USEPA guidance on public engagement by actively involving all stakeholders in negotiations with the US embassy. For its part, the US Embassy should have encouraged the Gambian government to do the right thing by insisting that civil society organizations, especially environmental groups, should be involved in the negotiations to ensure their acceptance of the outcome of the negotiations.
Unfortunately, the Gambian government handled the matter in a rather opaque, even inept manner. According to the US embassy FAQ document, the MoA with the Gambian government was signed on October 6, 2022. However, the AG House press release came out almost a month later, on October 26.the. What took you so long? Also, why did the GA Chamber, rather than the Ministry of Foreign Affairs or the Ministry of Land and Regional Administration make the announcement? And why didn’t they hold public hearings and ask for public comment on the matter, given the uproar in 2018 over government plans to build a 5-star hotel in Monkey Park?
The US Embassy and the US government should also learn from this. First, there is no need to locate the new US embassy on the WALIC grounds. I think a better option would be for the US Embassy to talk to the British High Commission about the use of part of the sprawling Medical Research Council (MRC) campus, which sits on almost 30ha of land in front of the British High Commission. The eastern part of the MRC campus is sparsely built, and the MRC should be able to carve 10 hectares of its campus for the new US embassy.
At the US-Africa Summit last week, President Biden announced that The Gambia was one of four countries selected to develop new grant programs with the US’s Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC). This gesture is very much in keeping with with the long and generally cordial relationship between the two countries. Despite this, many of the Gambians, in the Monkey Park saga, have chosen not to side with the US, but instead side with the monkeys. This, if anything, should remind the US government that, powerful as it is, it has an image problem.
