The Federal Government, through the Agro-Climatic Resilience in Semi-Arid Landscapes project, says it will restore about one million hectares of degraded land in Northern Nigeria.
Its National Project Coordinator, ACReSAL, Mr Abdulhamid Umar, disclosed this during a stakeholders’ engagement on the ‘Development of Strategic Catchment Management Plans in Wetland Zones of Northern Nigeria’, on Friday in Kano.
He said that the workshop was organised to derive a shared vision of the strategic stakeholders for an ideal riparian catchment.
Umar added that the engagement would focus on interacting with strategic stakeholders from Ngada West Chad, Yedseram-East Chad, Hadejia, and Katagun K-Gana catchments, covering Borno, Yobe, Jigawa, Bauchi, and Kano States.
He highlighted that the strategic plan would facilitate ACRESAL to meet her ‘Project Development Objective (PDO)’.
“This will help in sustainably restoring one million hectares of degraded land, making them cultivatable, habitable, and usable for any other purpose be it commercial, domestic or otherwise.”
“ACRESAL seeks to impact 3.4 million direct beneficiaries out of which 1.68 million (49.41 per cent) would be women,” Umar said.
The ACReSAL boss said that catchment management plans would enable the integration of social and economic needs with the natural ecosystems and the long-term use of natural resources.
According to him, it will elaborately and comprehensively bring out the structures and mechanisms for environmental cooperation and coordination as well as the development of social commitment and cohesion.
“Catchment management plans not only provide answers to what, when, and where of catchment management, they also provide scientifically guided decisions.”
“This is regarding early strategies for preparing and averting potential environmental challenges (early warning),” Umar said.
The Managing Director of Mecon Geology and Engineering Services Ltd, Mr Chuka Offodile, assured that his company would deliver quality data to guide the government or private entities that may be desirous of any form of investment within the developed strategic catchment management plan.
He said the development of the plan would help in addressing the issue of food production and food security, which he said remained a priority of the Federal Government.
Offodile added that the plan was the result of collaborative efforts and stakeholders’ engagements, expressing gratitude for the support and inputs from all parties involved.
Some of the stakeholders who spoke at the event lauded the Federal Government for its efforts to make lands in the front-line states cultivable, habitable, and usable.
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