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By Maduka Nweke
The Federal Government has bemoaned the escalating level of desertification in the country, saying that plans are afoot to tackle the crisis by fighting climate change and urgently recovering and reclaiming land that has been lost to desertification, especially in the northern region of the country.
According to the Minister of Environment, Balarabe Lawal, land is a huge asset in any economy, adding that in Nigeria where land for economic activities such as real estate, agriculture, industrialisation and warehousing is relatively scarce, especially in the cities, no effort should be spared to recover any parcel lost by any means.
The Minister, who revealed this recently, during the visit of a team of environment experts from the World Bank, including Agro-Climatic Resilience in Semi-Arid Landscapes (ACReSAL) officials and other stakeholders at the ACReSAL Federal Project Management Unit (FPMU) in Abuja, stressed that addressing climate change was of keen interest to the Federal Government.
He said: “An increase in collaboration among the Ministries of Environment, Agriculture and Food Security, Water Resources and Sanitation, as well as the World Bank, will result in the success of the ACReSAL Project. We are not doing this because we have a job, we want to save our environment.”
He revealed that there is a partnership between the Nigerian government and the World Bank which has led to multi-institutional machinery to stem the fast-paced degradation of landscapes of the country’s northern region. He added that ACReSAL would be pivotal in facilitating the much needed inter agency cooperation among the ministries, as well as within the 19 northern states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
The minister hopes that ACReSAL will address pervasive issues like high degradation of natural resources, poor agricultural productivity, climate risks, desertification, increased poverty rates, conflicts, violence and weak institutional capacity., adding that it will involve several federal and state Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), local governments, communities and civil societies that will also provide solutions to desertification, flooding, climatic variability, deforestation, extensive cultivation, overgrazing, bush burning, fuel wood extraction, charcoal production, faulty irrigation systems, improper road drainage design and construction.
The various MDAs include those responsible for planning, economy, finance, works, agriculture, water resources, forests, transport, power, emergency response, as well as those focused on climate and hydrological information or watershed/basin regulation.
The minister hoped further that ACReSAL would deliver on the mandate with better understanding of collaboration, assuring the National Project Coordinator of ACReSAL, Abduhamid Umar, that the Ministry would make provisions for the needed support.
Task Team leader of the ACReSAL Project and Senior Environmental Specialist, World Bank, Joy Iganya Agene, in her remarks, said the World Bank Task Team were present to jointly receive the Minister with the FPMU team, noting that the successes achieved so far by the ACReSAL Project was an indication of the benefits and support it has enjoyed from the minister.
