Over 2,000 Degraded Landscape Restored Through World Bank Financed Project

Michael Olugbode in Abuja

The Federal Government has started restoring degraded land in desert prone states of the North, the National Project Coordinator, Agro-Climatic Resilience in Semi-Arid Landscapes (ACReSAL) project, National Project Coordinator, Abdulhamid Umar, has said.

Speaking while delivering pick-up vans to different MDAs to monitor landscape degradation and restoration projects in the North, Umar said as at the last count over 2,000 degraded landscape had been restored with over 1,900 direct beneficiaries from the scheme.

He noted that states like Yobe, Jigawa, Kano, Katsina, Sokoto and Borno which are arid with desert systematically taking over the area have had immense interventions.

Umar explained that the ACReSAL project financed by the World Bank has an investment portfolio of $700 million to intervene and address issues surrounding landscape resurrection, landscape degradation arising from desertification, deforestation that has been brought about by climate change challenges, natural and human.

He noted that “the World Bank has made available the fund essentially to address challenges that have been brought about issues surrounding climate change. The mandate is for us to cover one million landscape before the end of the project and we have presence in over 12 states now and other states have their term of reference being reviewed for us to speedily deliver.”

The states covered under the scheme are the 19 northern states and FCT, Abuja.

Umar however said: “We have challenges arising from security mainly, on the fringes states like Katsina, Zamfara, Sokoto are being ravaged by banditry. So access to those areas that we would have wanted to quickly intervene is restricted because of those security challenges. But for funding, the fund is available, once we have bankable documentation, the funds are released for implementation.”

Speaking at the occasion at the weekend, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Environment, Ibrahim Idris, who handed the keys and documents of the vehicles to beneficiary MDAs in Abuja, said the initiative was to ensure an effective monitoring of investments by the bank.

He said: “We have desertification and erosion caused by climate change. This aspect of desertification is what ACReSAL is supposed to address. The land area is very wide, which is why we are focusing on 19 states and the Federal Capital Territory.

“That is why you need vehicles to move round to see what is happening, for when you invest money, you must put your eyes there to see what is happening. We are giving out 11 vehicles today and the aim is to ensure proper supervision and monitoring of projects.”

On beneficiaries of the vehicles, the permanent secretary said, “They include various ministries and agencies, such as water resources, remote sensing, agriculture and some departments in the Ministry of Environment. It cuts across all the stakeholder agencies in ACReSAL.”