Chuks Oyema-Aziken
Mr. Umar Abdulhamid, the National Project Coordinator of the Agro-Climatic Resilience in Semi-Arid Landscapes (ACReSAL) Project on Friday disclosed that the project have restored 2000 landscapes and benefitted 96,529 person’s in implementing states.
He stated this at the presentation of operational vehicles to some of the lead implementing MDAs on the ACReSAL Project
He said that ACReSAl has an investment portfolio of 700 million US dollars to intervene and address issues surrounding landscapes degradation arising from desertification, deforestation that has been brought about by climate change challenges, natural causes and human activities.
“The project is a six -year lifespan project that just started a year ago. Our team has started actual implementation. Restoration of landscapes have started immensely. At the last count, we have actually been able to restore over 2,000 degraded landscapes.
“We have over 96,529 beneficiaries directly and the list is ongoing. Our expectation is that by mid-term review, we would have been able to deliver more than 60% of the goals and achievements at the land and ecosystem restoration level and the beneficiaries in total.
Presenting the vehicles, the Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Environment, who is also the Chairman, Federal Technical Committee of the ACRESAL Project, Mr. Ibrahim Yusufu Idris charged implementing Ministries, Department and Agencies of ACReSAL Project to ensure proper supervision and monitoring of projects to achieve delivery of their mandate.
The presentation of the vehicles is to enable the project realize it’s cardinal components of increasing landscapes restoration and enhance livelihoods in the participating states.
According to the Permanent Secretary, “Even at personal level, if you invest your money, and do not supervise what is happening. You will lose. So you must move around to see what is happening. Where you have problems, you address these problems.
Some of the recipients of the operational vehicles are representatives from the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, Federal Ministry of Water Resources and Sanitation, Nigeria Integrated Water Resources Management Commission, Department of Climate Change- Federal Ministry of Environment, others are department of Forestry -Federal Ministry of Environment, National Space Research and Development Agency, department of Desertification, Land Degradation and Drought Management among others.
