ACReSAL, FAO collaborate to fight desertification, restore 350,000 degraded land in 19 Northern states, FCT
Not fewer than 350.000 hectares of degraded land across the Nineteen Northern States and FCT are to be reclaimed and restored in an effort to fight desertification under the Agro-Climatic Resilience in Semi-Arid Landscape (ACReSAL), a World Bank funded project.
Consequently, a partnership has been formed between ACReSAL and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) to the effect as disclosed by the Project Coordinator of ACReSAL in Bauchi state, Dr. Ibrahim Kabir during a step-down engagement with relevant stakeholders in Bauchi state.
According to him, “We signed a MoU targeting to restore 350,000 hectares of degraded land across the 19 Northern states and the FCT. This is out of the targeted 1 million hectares that was resounding in the project.”
He explained that, “After the engagement for the FAO and the ACReSAL, they invited us for a capacity building where we had a workshop on the new techniques of large scale land restoration. We were directed to come back to our various states and step down. We were given a mandate to identify the key stakeholders that can support us to restore these degraded lands.”
He added that,”We were able to identify the areas in the first stage. We co-opted the Forestry Officers who are in the field across the 20 local government areas of the State, the Agricultural Extension Workers and the staff of the Ministry of Water Resources who are also in the communities particularly the riverine areas of the state.”
“So, we also brought the Local Government Staff of Agriculture and Forestry, now we are doing the step down,” he added.
The ACReSAL PC stressed that, “What we are trying to impart in them from our previous workshop is to put them through because they are the implementers. There is no land to reclaim in Abuja, there is no land to restore here in Bauchi at the headquarters, we have to go to the communities. So that is why we invited them, they are more than 200 and we are stepping down and giving them the necessary skills.”
Ibrahim Kabir pointed out that ACReSAL has its principles and guide on how to do the restoration process and that is why it was captured in the ‘Catchment Management Plan’ where the communities across the state are delineated in the river basins and also the wetlands.
He said that, “This is the best strategy for land restoration, it is to be able to identify the locations based on the catchment management plan.”
“We are now in the process of identifying all the degraded lands that are in Bauchi across the 20 local government areas. We want to invest heavily in afforestation, we are going beyond planting of trees but we want to create like a mini ecosystem where we have the trees, the shrubs, the grasses and all the wildlife that are supposed to be there,” The PC added.
He then explained that, “It is an integrated approach and that’s why we have and that’s why we have staff of the Ministry of Water Resources. We will invest heavily in creating some micro climate across the 20 local government areas, that’s the drive.”
According to him, “It is not the number of trees that matter, we are talking about hectares. When you plant the trees, how many hectares are you targeting to have? For this particular project, not ACReSAL entirely, for the partnership between the FAO and the ACReSAL at the national level, Bauchi pledged that we are going to restore 20,000 hectares of land in 2024 alone particularly in the northern part of the state where we have harsh weather, where we have lots of desertification issues.”
Ibrahim Kabir added that, “So, we are pledging and we are trying to see with this kind of stake holding we can do to deliver 20,000 hectares. One good thing about it is that the techniques that we are going to deploy are mainly mechanical not manual. We have a pan now under ACReSAL that we are going to procure a deplane flow which has a capacity beyond tractor machinery that we are going to use in order to prepare land for restoration.”
“You can use deplane flow to plant millions of trees within a year that can cover do many hectares. This is part of what we are going to do, it is mechanized in nature and that is why we are hopeful that with this kind of mechanization approach, we can be able to deliver this 20, 00 hectares,” he added.
According to him, How can this be achieved when people cut trees to use for firewood because if poverty?
This is key in ACReSAL, in fact, when we were designing our work plan for 2024, currently, we have an intervention of over 1 million households where we will provide them with sustainable source of energy particularly cooking energy. We have gotten an approval from the World Bank and we’re in the process of starting with seven local government areas and we are taking to cover the 20 local government areas of the State.”
Ibrahim Kabir added that, “Most of the environmental issues are related to attitude and human factors, that’s why we call them atrophogenic because they are not natural. In ACReSAL, we have discovered that people don’t have any other option other than doing what they are doing (cutting down trees). We have devised of bringing them on board through sensitization. The second thing is that we are able to identify their needs so that they can change their attitude.”
The PC added that, “Most of the communities, over 86 percent of Bauchi people, the households use firewood for cooking that we are going to distribute. This also will use firewood and charcoal in reduce quantity, so it’s not going to affect their environment? If a particular household is spending 100,000 in a month to cut two trees for them to cook, now they’re going to spend only N5,000 to N10,000 because we are reducing the pressure on the environment by 80%.”
He stressed that, “We will make sure that within the next Six years, we sustain it. We know the population of Bauchi is over 7 million but the number of households are not up to that 7 million.”
Ibrahim Kabir said that, “So, the target of ACReSAL is that before the end of this project in the next six years, at least, each of the households should have one cook stuff, be it the primary cook stuff or the alternative cook stuff, so that the indiscriminate cutting down of trees for firewood will be reduced drastically.”
He expected that the participants in the project are from 20 states, the 19 Northern states and the FCT saying, “We have allocated $700 million for the 20 states. Bauchi received an advance of $2 million which we received starting from last year.”
He also said that, “We have started utilizing the funds, it is part of the money that we used to intervene in Yankari Game Reserve, it is part of the money that we used to establish shelter base in Bauchi, it is part of the money that we used also to establish Biological Garden at the Federal Polytechnic, Bauchi and other projects that we have engaged upon including this kind of engagement that we are having.”
According to him, “In general, we have $2 million as advance. The good thing about ACReSAL is that, whatever you spend, within few hours or days, you will be reimbursed depending on the circumstances and the procedures you followed to spend this money.”
“So, the $2, million is like an advance to see what we can do with it so that we can get more finding. The $700 million is in a basket, nobody owns it depending on your performance, and it is performance based. You can fight and work hard, you can get up to half of the money,” he added.
