Agency pledges to tackle deforestation in Nigeria

The National Agency for the Great Green Wall (NAGGW) on Thursday expressed its committed to transforming the country’s dry lands through afforestation and reforestation.

Director General D-G of the agency Dr Yusuf Maina-Bukar said this at the celebration of the maiden edition of the Great Green Wall Day in Abuja.

The D-G said that given the large swaths of land to be transformed, the agency was faced with the challenges of providing adequate amount of water for its activities.

“As part of the commemoration of the Great Green Wall Day, we are going to demonstrate the use of a Dutch invention, Groasis Waterboxx, that assures a 90 per cent survival rate for plant seedlings.

“The Waterboxx functions as a plant incubator, sheltering both the newly planted seedling and the ground around it from the heat of the sun, while providing water for the plant.

“The lid collects water from rain and night time condensation, which is then stored in the bucket,” he said.

Maina-Bukar said that the initiative was being implemented across 22 African countries and has been uplifting thousands of communities across the continent.

“It has also brought together African countries and international partners under the leadership of the African Union Commission and the Pan-African Agency of the Great Green Wall (PAGGW).

Alhaji Ibrahim Idris Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Environment, urged the agency to continue to do its best in the face of climate change.

Idris said that the impact of this climate change were experienced in the frontline states such as Borno, Yobe, Jigawa, Kano, Katsina, Zamfara, Sokoto, Kebbi, Bauchi, Gombe and Adamawa.

He said the impact had been felt through increase in poverty as people sources of livelihood are eroded, adding that it had also impacted on the ecosystem in the affected areas.

Idris urged increased mobilisation and sensitisation campaigns on ecological challenges such as drought, desertification, and land degradation.

Our correspondent reports that the occasion was marked with a symbolic tree planting in the State House by First Lady, Remi Tinubu, and Vice President, Sen.Kashim Shettima other dignitaries.