GGW (Great Green Wall) in Nigeria
Photo credit: Murtala Adogi Mohammed
Tree planting in Northern Nigeria
NEWS ANALYSIS: Tackling desertification via Great Green Wall programme
A News Analysis by Sani Adamu — Posted by OLADAYO.KOMOLAFE
in NAN (News Agency of Nigeria): NANFeatures/Vol. 9/No. 4/2015 (Jan. 8)
By all accounts, President Goodluck Jonathan appears to have taken the bull by the horns in mustering the political will to formally launch the Nigerian component of the Great Green Wall (GGW) Programme in Bachaka village, Kebbi State.
Although Senegal, Chad and Niger had earlier launched their regional components of the programme, the Nigerian component of the programme has remained on the drawing board for years.
Developed by the African Union (AU), through its New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), GGW is conceived as a 15-km wide strip of greenery (trees and bushes) of some 7,775 km long, from Senegal, in the west, to Djibouti, the Horn of Africa, in the east.
The belt is expected to pass through 11 countries, including Nigeria.
Under the programme, more than 1.5 million new trees are expected to be planted from Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, to Birnin-Kebbi in Kebbi, a distance of about 1,500 km.
Environmentalists describe the initiative as a panacea to menacing movement of the Sahara desert southward, saying that the GGW programme will also protect water sources and restore habitats for biodiversity, energy resources and agricultural production.
Studies indicate that Nigeria is losing more than 350,000 square kilometres of its forest landmass each year to desert encroachment.
The studies also reveal that the effect of desert encroachment is mostly noticeable in 11 frontline states of Adamawa, Borno, Bauchi, Gombe, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Jigawa, Sokoto, Yobe and Zamfara.
Available records show that the menace has already started taking its toll on humans, animals and plants in virtually all the frontline states.
Read the full article: NAN
Like this:
Like Loading…
Related
Originally published at desertification.wordpress.com on February 6, 2015.
