10 December 2007
Gambia's concern for environment and conservation has led to the creation of six parks and reserves, where the country's extraordinary fauna and flora is protected.
One of them, Abuto Nature Reserve, was born from one British family's passion for the country's wildlife.
Eddie Brewer and his family arrived in 1957 from Wales, and fell in love with the park, an area of dense woodland to near-impenetrable jungle, lying on the western side of the tarmac road from Banjul to Yundum Airport.
Working as a forestry official, he discovered an unspoiled nature he wished to protect, and created the Abuto Nature Reserve.
His daughter Stella Brewer (later Stella Marsden), fell in love with chimpanzees and founded the Chimpanzee Rehabilitation Project (CRP) in 1974, as a solution for a group of chimps confiscated from hunters and traders by the Gambian wildlife authorities.
Her work has been internationally renowned thanks to her book 'Forest Dwellers' and the television programme "Jewel in the sky". Nowadays, the rehabilitation project is still active.
The Abuto Nature Reserve offers a cornucopia of wildlife opportunities, with cohabiting monkeys, baboons, civets, birds and even some lions, along with antelopes and crocodiles.
