FG partners Niger, Chad on Lake Chad basin rehabilitation

…Project includes promotion of agro-forestry, livestock devt in participating countries

Nigeria, Niger and Chad are working on a joint trans-border agro ecosystem project aimed at the restoration of livelihoods and rehabilitation of the Lake Chad Basin.

Director General, National Agency for the Great Green Wall, Dr. Bukar Hassan, disclosed this after an international conference on desertification on Sunday in New Delhi, India.

He said that since environmental issues do not recognise national boundaries, the partnership would help to rehabilitate agricultural system, restore degraded land and livelihoods of people in Lake Chad basin.

According to him, the project includes promotion of agro-forestry and livestock development in the three participating countries bordering the Lake Chad basin.

The director general said that Lake Chad, which is located in a very dry area, had lost about 90 per cent of its water over the years, thus making farming unattractive in the basin.

“Today, agriculture is no longer practiced in the Nigerian side of the Lake Chad basin.

“So, our responsibility as an agency of Nigerian government is to make sure that we regain what we lost in terms of water (which has created huge unemployment among the people) and empower the people to be able to get back their land which was lost due to the disappearance of lake.

“We will also make sure that the boundary of the lake is afforested to stabilise the basin. The Lake Chad basin is one of the worst degraded areas in the world with attendant humanitarian crisis.

“That’s why our president is keen on seeing that the basin is rehabilitated because the insurgency affecting the three participating countries is all linked to environmental degradation.

“That’s why we are developing a project that will help in rehabilitating the Chad basin,” Hassan said.

He said that President Muhammadu Buhari has already given his agency marching orders to intensify afforestation specifically, in the country’s five northern border states of Sokoto, Jigawa Yobe, Borno and Katsina.

He said that land degradation and desertification resulting in loss of livelihoods had led to forced migration of young people from the northern to the southern parts of the country.

“There is mass movement because the means of livelihoods are no longer there; otherwise people will not just board an articulated vehicle from Jigawa state to Lagos state in search of means of livelihood.

“So, we’re trying to provide capacity for these people to get them adapted to the arid environments they found themselves and also do some economic activities, so that they can stay put where they were, take care of their families like everyone else,” Hassan said.

He boss said that the agency’s efforts were aimed at reclaiming land in the country’s 11 driest states, which had different ecosystems with lots of agricultural, livestock and economic activities.

These frontline states are Sokoto, Kebbi, Zamfara, Katsina, Kano, Jigawa, Yobe, Borno, Gombe, Bauchi and Adamawa.

He said that the agency has succeeded in raising the consciousness of people in these dry areas that they could do small scale irrigation farming and could conquer desertification, aridity and unproductive soil.

The Great Green Wall Initiative (GGWI) for Sahara and Sahel region is an initiative of 11 African countries against desertification launched in 2007 by the African Union to restore degraded landscapes and transform millions of lives.

Once completed, the 8, 000-kilometre-long wall and natural wonder of the world, stretching across the entire width of over 20 countries in the continent, would be the largest living structure on the planet.

Over $8 billion has been mobilised and pledged in its support by African countries and international partners under the leadership of the African Union Commission and Pan-African Agency of the Great Green Wall.

In 2008, the World Bank-led Investment Programme on Sustainable Land Management in Sub-Saharan Africa provided $1billion of development financing.

Also, the Sahel and West Africa Programme in Support (SAWAP) of GGWI spent another $1.1 billion multi-lateral trust fund to bring over 1.6 million hectares of land under SLM and support income-generating activities, reaching over 22 million beneficiaries across 12 countries.