FEDERAL GOVERNMENT SET TO LAUNCH GREEN WALL SAHARA INITIATIVE TO COMBAT DESERTIFICATION

Minister of Environment Hajia Hadiza Mailafia

Federal Government is set to launch the Great Green Wall Sahara Initiative GWSI in October, the Director, Drought and Desertification Amelioration in the Federal Ministry of Environment, Dr Bukhar Hassan, has said.

Hassan stated in Abuja that the launch would be done by President Goodluck Jonathan in Kano, adding that the initiative was the brain child of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, which he had proposed at a continental meeting in Libya in 2005.

The project is expected to run across Africa, from Mauritania in the North West, to Djibouti in the North East and it is designed to combat desert encroachment occasioned by climate change, The current rate of desert encroachment into Nigeria is put at 0.6 km per annum.

It is envisaged that the GWSI project will restore soil fertility and reclaim the land for economic activities.
Hassan said the project would be executed in phases over a 12-year period, across the 11 front line states in Nigeria and would involve reforestation ranging from development of shelter belts to woodlots, among others.

The states to benefit include Kebbi, Sokoto, Zamfara, Katsina, Jigawa, Yobe, Adamawa, Gombe, Kano, Bauchi and Borno State.