President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has given the National Great Green Wall (NGGW) marching orders to tackle desertification in eleven frontline States in the northern region.
The Director General of the agency, Dr. Yusuf Maina Bukar disclosed this in Abuja shortly after receiving an award from the National Renewed Hope Youth Ambassadors, a pro-Tinubu/Shetimma support group.
They are Borno, Kebbi, Sokoto, Yobe, Kano, Jigawa, Katsina, Bauchi, Gombe and Adamawa States.
Bukar said his agency is collaborating with the affected states and other stakeholders to tackle desertification and its pact.
He started that the agency is making a difference by taking its assignment seriously in line with President Tinubu’s “Renewed Hope” agenda.
Bukar lamented that desertification has caused a lot of damage to farm lands and livelihood of the people in the affected states, adding it was time to address its impact on the people.
“We are collaborating with states to tackle this issue. We have lost farmlands, livelihood in those areas and that is to tell you the level of damage and danger this has posed to the states.
“So we won’t relent; we are committed to helping Mr President to deliver on his ‘Renewed Hope’ agenda for Nigeria.”
Explaining the essence of the award, the Director General of the National Renewed Hope Youth Ambassadors, Haruna Adamu Sardauna said, “Bukar with the support of his management team has established shelter belts, woodlot, plantations, orchards and gardens in tertiary institutions” and deserved the award for his performance in office.
A civil society group, Climate and Sustainable Development Network (CSDevNet), has called for a remediation programme to combat desertification and drought.
Its Board of Trustees Chairman, Dr Ibrahim Choji, made the call during a briefing as part of activities to commemorate the World Combat Desertification and Drought Day.
The event, which had as theme ‘Let’s grow the future together’ focuses on three key issues: drought, human security and climate.
Choji said: “Land in Nigeria has long been a silent casualty of war and armed conflicts. From the contamination of land and the destruction of forests to the plunder of natural resources and the collapse of management systems, the environmental consequences of militancy in the Niger Delta, terrorism in the North and herdsmen-farmers’ crises across Nigeria are often widespread and devastating. A small proportion of Nigerians in conflict-prone areas have the luxury of mobility which is not applicable to the land.”
According to him, land is static; never mobile hence it is subject to varying degrees of exploitation and despoliation and because land is fixed in quantity. There is ever-increasing competition to control land resources and capitalise on the flows of goods and services from the land.
This, he said, had the potential to cause social and political instability, fueling poverty, conflict and migration.
Over 70 million people living in the North have experienced the negative impact of drought and desertification directly or indirectly, the Federal Government has said.
The government has embarked on tree planting in 11 states to curb desertification.
The Director-General, National Agency for the Great Green Wall (NAGGW), Mr. Goni Ahmed, who spoke during a visit to Sokoto State by members of the agency, said six-kilometre of shelterbelt, two hectares of orchards and one hectare of community nursery were established at Unguwar Lalle in Sabon Gari Local Government.
Ahmed, in a statement in Abuja at the weekend, said Sokoto was one of the states chosen as a focal point for the GGW project under the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO).
He said desertification could plunge the state into environmental degradation and increased poverty if not tackled.
The director thanked Governor Aminu Tambuwal for his support to the agency by ensuring that a bill for the creation of NAGGW was passed when he was the Speaker of the House of Representatives.
He solicited the support of the state government in the provision of land for the GGW programme and the establishment of state and local government committee in line with the GGW Act.
Tambuwal hailed the agency, saying he was impressed by the work by the agency in the state.
He said the project was a direct benefit for the people, adding that the state would support and embrace the programme.
According to him, the state re-enacted a bill to ensure the control of desertification before the agency was created.
Sokoto State Governor Aminu Tambuwal and Sultan Muhammad Sa’ad, among other leaders, have launched a campaign to stop the advance of the desert and save their environment. ADAMU SULEIMAN reports
It was a demonstration of will not to allow the encroaching desert, perhaps the North’s worst and urgent threat, to take over the region. That was why Sokoto State Governor Aminu Tambuwal, Sultan of the Caliphate Muhammad Abubakar Sa’ad stepped out to halt the menace in its tracks.
sultan of sokoto
The governor and the monarch are not the only ones fighting the encroachment, though. Members of the state House of Assembly and All Progressives Congress (APC) chiefs are part of the campaign, as are senior officials of the state government.
It is not difficult to see why. The advancing desert has sacked many communities in the region and overrun farmlands and scarce water sources. This is not just the handiwork of the Sahel; climate change, resulting in intense heat, is also to blame. The effect is devastating, with the ecosystem in danger, flora and fauna in as much trouble as humans.
Sokoto and other states fringing the desert are under immediate threat.
Is there any solution? Yes, tree planting, in what has been termed the Great Green Wall Project.
That is what leaders in the Caliphate are doing: planting trees to counter the advancing desert and inject life into the atmosphere.
The campaign is for everyone to sustain, including organisations, local governments, but those who must embrace it more than anyone else are all-season farmers.
The advance of the desert has been accelerated by unrelenting felling of trees without planting more to replace those cut down. That is why the state government has also mounted a campaign to encourage even individuals who must cut down trees to plant as many as, if not more than, they chop down.
What type of tree is ideal for this fight? The Neem will do nicely, because it is tough and can resist harsh rough weather. This is the reason you find rows of this medicinal, bitter tree at the seat of the caliphate, sometimes in clusters or in rows in open spaces.
Moreover, this tree also adds beauty to the city and communities nurturing them. Governor Tambuwal is also providing date palm seedlings for distribution free to farmers across the 23 local governments of the state.
Neem trees will help.
Tambuwal flagged off this year’s tree planting campaign in Kawadata village in Goronyo Local Government Area, warning residents and households to desist from indiscriminate tree felling. Embrace tree planting, he stressed.
He said the ban on tree felling for use as firewood in homes by households is now effective.
He said, to mitigate the effect of the new policy on especially the rural dwellers, the state government will provide stoves, while advising them to explore other sources of energy like coal.
The governor’s demonstration of commitment to curb desertification in the state keys into the 2015 Tree Planting Campaign theme tagged,’’ Sustainable Ecosystem Restoration.”
Tambuwal said at the flag-off that date palm trees would be planted across the state under the Great Green-Wall Project.
He said the gesture of the state government was part of renewed and sustained efforts to curb the menace of desertification.
The governor also called on individuals and organisations across the state to take interest in the cultivation of tree crops such as date palm and gum Arabic, noting that such would enhance the preservation of environment.
He pointed out that tree planting is not only an environmental imperative but also a spiritual obligation.
He said, “Islam encourages tree planting for the benefit of humanity in communities. This should be done as a measure to alleviate poverty and unemployment, and reap from the abundant benefits of planting trees.”
He added that everyone must take it seriously and embrace the tree planting exercise by emulating him and launching the campaign in their environments.
Tambuwal said further: “This is necessary if not to roll back the process of desertification, at least to cancel some of its gains through a sustained effort in planting trees.
Tambuwal
“All stakeholders should have a change of attitude by ensuring that the exercise is given all the seriousness it deserves.’’
The governor also called on farmers to adopt more modern and sustainable methods of farming.
“Having economic trees on your farms actually improves the yield of your harvests and agro-forestry is now the more acceptable form of modern and sustainable farming.
“I would like to appeal to our royal and religious leaders to continue to give their maximum support in order to ensure the success of this exercise.”
The Permanent Secretary in the state Ministry of Environment, Garba Muhammad Sarkin-Kudu, said a 2km shelter-belt will be established in each of the three senatorial zones of the state as part of this year’s campaign.
He added: “Government House to house campaign has been carried out in the 400-unit housing estates to provide shelter and windbreak.”
The National Environmental Standards Regulations Enforcement Agency (NESREA) has warned against illegal felling of trees and desertification in the northeast.
Its coordinator in the zone, Abdullahi Bindawa, gave the warning in his office in Gombe in a chat with our correspondent.
He said: “Indiscriminate cutting down of trees and destruction of vegetative cover in the area will create unnecessary havoc.”
Bindawa explained that cutting down trees without replacement will encourage and give impetus to desertification in the area.
He said the rate of destruction of trees was higher than that of planting in the zone.
Planting of trees, according to NESREA chief, will provide food and energy for human needs as well as the needed cover for the land, which he lamented has become susceptible to water gully erosion, wind erosion and desert encroachment.
He called on government and relevant agencies not to hesitate in bringing to book anyone found in the act of illegal cutting of trees.
Bindawa further advised residents to always keep their environments clean to avoid flooding, unnecessary ailments and outbreak of diseases.
The Minister of Environment, Mrs. Laurentia Mallam, has praised the National Agency for Great Green Wall (NAGGW) for the development of shelterbelts in the North to curb desertification.
She spoke at a stakeholders forum organised by NAGGW in Katsina State, last week.
Mrs Mallam praised the agency’s for providing improved seedlings, alternative cooking devices and potable water to the communities within the GGW corridor; development and management of orchards and other measures that have helped to reduce desertification scourge in the North.
The minister, represented by the coordinator of the Afforestation Programme Coordinating Unit (APCU) Kano, Mr. Ado Saminu, said she was glad to be part of the steady and progressive activities of the young and dynamic National Agency for Great Green Wall. She further noted that the determination, commitment and focus in the pursuit of excellence as well as the symbolic relationship in the management and harnessing of land resources for the betterment of the people was vital to the achievement of success in the fight against desertification in the north.
She explained that the GGW programme is a holistic approach being undertaking in which stakeholders are encouraged to contribute their quotas through popular participation.
The Katsina State Commissioner for Environment, Abdullahi Aliyu, disclosed that the state has established 26 kilometers of shelterbelts, and assured that the state will support the federal government’s efforts at fighting desertification and environmental degradation challenges in the north.
The Director-General, NAGGW, Mr. Goni Ahmed, who was represented by Head, Community Mobilisation and Sensitisation, NAGGW, Hajia Bintu Kolo Mohammed, said the outcome of the conference will be handy in addressing the status, challenges and prospects of the NAGGW, in other to ensure that it contributes to sustainable development through employment creation, product development, income generation and poverty reduction.
The Federal Government has called on stakeholders to support the Great Green Wall (GGW) Programme to prevent desertification, drought and climate change in the North.
Director-General, National Agency for Great Green Wall Mr. Goni Ahmed made the appeal during a courtesy call by representatives of the World Bank and Reducing Emission from Desertification and Forest Degredation ( REDD)+ in Abuja.
In the statement, the agency’s Information Officer, NAGGW, Larai Daze, quoted Ahmed as saying that without stakeholders’ support, the North could experience debilitating levels of out migration.
He explained that the NAGGW was a holistic and an integrated approach aimed at reducing emission from desertification and forest degradation.
Ahmed said the agency needed assistance in the rehabilitation of nurseries, establishment of shelter belt, sand dune stabilisation, agro-forestry, farmers’ managed natural regeneration, integrated water and natural resources management.
Others include transboundary ecosystem management, sensitisation and awareness, development of alternative sources of energy, gender mainstreaming, scientific expertise and research, capacity building and knowledge sharing.
Earlier, the leader of the World Bank delegation, Mrs. Haddy Sey, said the visit was to facilitate the World Bank’s collaborative initiative on reducing emission from desertification and Forest degradation in developing countries.
She also said the programme supports processes and promotes meaningful involvements of all stakeholders, including people living in the dry lands.
The GGW is a Pan African initiative launched by the Federal Government aimed at preserving the north from desert encroachment.
It is being implemented in 11 frontline states. They are Gombe, Bauchi, Kano, Jigawa, Katsina, Zamfara, Kebbi, Sokoto, Borno, Yobe and Kebbi.
The Federal Government has taken steps to contain desertification in the North. Desertification, caused largely by deforestation, is threatening farmlands and, if left unchecked, could endanger the lives of over 40 million people.
The Minister for the Environment, Mrs. Laurentia Mallam, during an awareness and sensitisation campaign in Zamfara and Kebbi states, lamented that more than 35 per cent of the country’s land area is threatened by desertification.
She said the campaign was aimed at tree planting and deployment of local efforts to check gully erosion the government she said, is determined to implement the project in Kano, Yobe, Borno, Adamawa, Katsina, Jigawa, Bauchi, Gombe and Sokoto.
She charged the states to support the government’s effort to curb the menace.
The government’s plan to save the northern states from the menace is anchored on the Great Green Wall (GGW) project, an initiative proposed by former President Olusegun Obasanjo to the African Union (AU) to check desert encroachment and desertification affecting countries bordering the Sahara Desert.
The GGW initiative is a pan-African proposal to green ”the continent from West to East in order to battle desertification. It aims at tackling poverty and degradation of soils in the Sahel – Saharan region. From the initial idea of planting a line of trees from east to west through the African desert, the vision of a Great Green Wall is said to have evolved into that of a mosaic of interventions addressing the challenges facing the people of the north.
GGW, also seen as a programming tool for rural development, is expected to strengthen the resilience of the region’s inhabitants and the natural systems through a sound and effective ecosystem management, the protection of rural heritage, and the improvement of the living conditions of the local people. It will also improve local incomes in the long run. For instance, the Chief Executive Officer of the Pan-African Agency for the GGW, Prof Abdoulaye Dia, during a recent visit to Nigeria said the project was not only about forestation but a means of eliminating rural poverty on the continent.
He stressed the need for Nigeria to integrate agriculture into the project to ensure that the rural dwellers were not left out of the envisaged benefit. He charged the country to take the leadership role expected of her on the GGW. Mrs Mallam is convinced that the GGW will address these issues as well as play positive roles in the fight against the insurgencies in the northern part of the country.
“It is a collective responsibility for everybody to protect the environment. If the environment is not conducive, a lot of activities will be affected. We must plant trees to ensure we protect against desertification. Lives and properties were lost during the wind break in Zamfara,” Mrs Mallam said, while appealing to residents of the states to refrain from felling trees, adding that whenever it became inevitable for them to do so, then one felled tree should be replaced with five replanted trees. When this is done, the Minister assured that desertification will be effectively checked in the north.
Following the devastating effect of desertification, Permanent Secretary, Ecological Fund Office (EFO), Engr. Goni Sheikh, has expressed fear that about 35 million people are under threat of hunger in the country.
Sheikh said the victims reside in areas prone to desertification such as the 11 frontline states in the north, including, Bauchi, Borno,
Gombe, Jigawa, Kano, Kebbi, Sokoto, Yobe and Zamfara.
He spoke at an event on providing Sustainable Desertification and Drought Control Projects organised by the Department of Desertification Control and Drought Amelioration, EFO at the weekend in Abuja.
Sheikh said: “Nigeria is believed to be losing approximately 320, 000 to 350, 000 hectares of land annually, with at least 35 million people facing threats of hunger and economic down turn due to the present scale of desertification
Earlier, Prof. Emmanuel Oladipo of Ahmadu Bello University identified the roles of research and capacity building in addressing challenges of environmental degradation in the country.
Associate Professor of Geography, Bayero University, Kano, Ibrahim Baba-Yakubu said the federal government should initiate ideas just beyond tree planting to solve desertification.
