By Chuks Oyema-Aziken
Minister of Environment, Mr Balarabe Abbas Lawal on Wednesday said the country is making significant progress in addressing land degradation and desertification.
He made this known at an event in Abuja to commemorate the World Environment Day.
The theme for 2024 World Environment Day is “Land Restoration, Desertification and Drought Resilience”.
He said Nigeria will continue to collaborate with neighbouring countries in the Sahel Region to implement the Great Green Wall project and harness the expertise as well as resources of international organisations and donors.
According to him “through initiatives such as the Great Green Wall Project (GGW), Nigeria Erosion and Watershed Management Project (NEWMAP) and Agro-Climatic Resilience in Semi-Arid Landscape (ACResal), Nigeria has tackled the challenges of land degradation and desertification.”
The Minister explained that measures have been implemented through these programmes and projects to restore degraded landscapes, promote sustainable land management and enhance the resilience of communities to drought and desertification.
“We must invest in the rehabilitation and restoration of degraded landscapes through afforestation, reforestation, and sustainable land management techniques that would enhance ecosystem services such as carbon sequestration and water filtration.”
The Minister also urged all stakeholders to join the Ministry of Environment and other agencies in its efforts to strengthen the enforcement of existing environmental laws and regulations with a view to preventing further degradation of our land resources.
“As we commemorate the World Environment Day today, let us recommit ourselves to the goal of accelerating land restoration, enhancing drought resilience, and combating desertification.
“This requires concerted efforts of all stakeholders, including government agencies, private sector, academia, and Civil Society Organizations (CSO’s).
“Air, water and soil pollution poses severe threats to public health and the environment,” he further said.
The Minister stressed that the theme for this year’s “World Environment Day” emphasizes not only the importance of protecting what we have, but also the need to restore and rejuvenate our agricultural landscape, to ensure food security and sustain a healthy ecosystem for future generation.
According to him, “this call to action resonates deeply with the Tinubu administration’s Renewed Hope Agenda, aimed at sustainable development and environmental stewardship.”
Mr Lawal called on Nigerians to redouble efforts in accelerating land restoration, enhancing drought resilience, and combating desertification.
The Minister said “by working together, we can build a more sustainable and resilient future for Nigeria and the world.”
The Minister of State for Environment, Dr Iziaq Salako in his speech called for more investments on nature in Nigeria and the global south countries, who today are the stewards of global biodiversity.
“As we mark this year edition of world environment day, I call on the nations of the Global North to shake off the current apathy around their commitment to deliver at least 20 billion USD annually in international biodiversity finance to developing countries by 2025 and 30 billion USD by 2030,” Dr Salako said.
He said that Nigeria’s resources and placement in the world offered a good platform for leading a global crusade for more attention for the deployment of natural processes to tackle socio-environment challenges of climate change in a sustainable manner.
“When we invest in nature, we protect our ecosystems, safeguard our people, provide good jobs, ensure food security, invite further investment, stabilize our economy, shelter ourselves from climate change, and preserve our indigenous ways of life. Investing in nature is investing in our future and will yield dividends in multiple folds,” he added.
