Guinea-Bissau on Thursday received an underwater drone to monitor garbage on the Bijagós islands, the gift of an expedition that set off from Portugal with sailors of various nationalities to draw attention to the archipelago considered “a paradise.”
The 88 islands of the Bijagós, 20 of which are inhabited, are a protected area where the currents of the Atlantic Ocean carry garbage from different sources, which the local authorities recognize as a problem for biodiversity.
The Bijagós expedition, a civil society initiative, handed over a drone to Guinea-Bissau’s Institute of Biodiversity and Protected Areas (IBAP), which will allow it to monitor the aquatic environments in the archipelago and obtain information on biodiversity and the formation of garbage deposits on the seabed.
Miguel Teixeira was the driving force behind the initiative, which started on the island of Madeira in Portugal and brought together sailors of various nationalities, as well as the 1,300 euros to buy the drone.
As he explained at the handover, which took place at the Portuguese Embassy in Bissau, this equipment will give a more accurate idea of what happens “up to 50 meters deep, because what you see at the surface of the water is around 10% of what’s down there.”
As he stressed, the Guinean archipelago “is a paradise that is being violated by waste that is not produced” locally.