The federal government of Nigeria has said that at the heart of efforts government is making to fight climate change is the urgent need to recover and reclaim land that has been lost to desertification, especially in the Northern region of the country.
Land is a huge asset in any economy and, in Nigeria where land for economic activities such as real estate, agriculture, industrialization, warehousing, etc, is relatively scarce, especially in the cities, no effort is spared to recover any parcel lost by any means.
Balarabe Abbas Lawal, the Minister of Environment, who revealed this at the weekend, said that addressing climate change was of keen interest to the federal government, adding that President Bola Tinubu was particularly concerned about the rapid encroachment of desertification in the country.
Lawal spoke 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.
“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”, the minister said.
He revealed that there is a partnership between the Nigerian government and the World Bank which has led to a 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.
He added 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.
