Desertification: Minister Urges Increased Collaboration To Restore Degraded Lands

The federal government has called for critical collaborative efforts to deliver climate -smart solutions that will boost the country’s agriculture and restore degraded landscape impacted negatively by climate change and desertification.

The minister of environment, Mallam Balarabe Abbas Lawal, made the call when he played host to a team of environment experts from the World Bank, Agro-Climatic Resilience in Semi-Arid Landscapes (ACReSAL) officials and other stakeholders at the ACReSAL Federal Project Management Unit (FPMU) in Abuja.

Balarabe, who expressed President Bola Tinubu’s concern about the rapid encroachment of desertification in the northern part of the country, emphasised the urgency to work hard to recover and reclaim lands lost to desertification.

He also called for increased collaboration among the ministries of environment, agriculture and food security, water resources and sanitation, as well as the World Bank, saying this would 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 added

While revealing the partnership between the federal 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, the minister  of environment 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).

This, he said would address pervasive issues like high degradation of natural resources, poor agricultural productivity, climate risks, desertification, increased poverty rates, conflicts, violence and weak institutional capacity.

ACReSAL, which the minister said involves several federal and state Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), local governments, communities and civil societies, 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.