In order to achieve the nation’s Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) target, the federal government has vowed to reverse, rehabilitate and restore over 10 million degraded lands nationwide in a bid to promote agricultural production, guarantee food security and industrial development by 2030.
Minister of Environment, Dr Mohammad Mahmood Abubakar stated this in Bwari area council during the commemoration of 2020 World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought organised by the ministry, with the theme, “Food, Feed, Fibre”.
Abubakar who disclosed that land degradation, desertification and drought exacerbated climate change and led to loss of animal habitats, which is why the world is currently experiencing the outbreak of diseases that are transmitted from animals to man such as lassa fever, bird flu, SARS and COVID-19, also planted economic trees in the locality.
According to the minister of State Environment, Sharon Ikeazor who also distributed clean cookstoves to Bwari women, maintained that stringent measures should be adopted for sustainable management of the country’s limited land resources and restoration of degraded lands.
Ikeazor who was represented by the director of Desertification, Land Degradation and Drought Management, Mrs Mabel Okiriguo Emmanuel was optimistic that the measures would sustain food production, reduce the impacts of climate change and improve the livelihood of locals.
On his part, the chairman of Bwari area council, Hon John Gabaya promised that his administration would ensure that the trees planted by the minister would not be destroyed by pests saying that it would be protected in collaboration with the ministry of Environment.
In his address, the FCT minister, Malam Muhammad Musa Bello noted that human activities had worsened desertification and drought due to over-exploitation and inappropriate land use, poverty, political instability, war, deforestation, overgrazing and bad irrigation practices.
Bello who was represented by FCT permanent secretary, Sir Christian Ohaa pointed out that FCT administration has suspended all changes in land use, commenced aggressive tree planting across the highways, adopted and implemented the policy of planting three trees for every 1 felled in collaboration with the private sector, aimed at combating drought and desertification.
To this end, the federal government is considering sealing a deal with the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) on management of the risk of Sand and Dust Storms (SDS).
