By ARMSTRONG ALLAHMAGANI, Bauchi –
Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) in collaboration Agro-Climatic Resilience in Semi-Arid Landscape (ACReSAL), a World Bank funded project, plan to restore degraded land across the 20 local government areas of the Bauchi State by planting trees on 20,000 hectares of land.
The Project Coordinator, ACReSAL, Dr. Ibrahim Kabir, stated this in an interview with journalists during a one day step down training workshop for stakeholders on large scale landscape restoration techniques which took place at Chartwell Hotel, Bauchi on Wednesday.
He said that they were in Abuja recently where the ACReSAL project has a partnership with the Food and Agriculture Organization to fight desertification and restore degraded land adding that they signed an Memorandum of Understanding targeting to restore 350,000 hectares of degraded land across the 19 northern states and the Federal Capital Territory out of the targeted 1 million hectares that was resounding in the project.
According to him, after the engagement for the FAO and the ACReSAL, they were invited for a capacity building where they had a workshop on the new techniques of large scale land restoration and were directed to go back to their various states and step down; he added that they were also given a mandate to identify the key stakeholders that can support us to restore these degraded lands.
“We were able to identify the 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 said.
He added that: “What we are trying to impart in them from our previous workshop is to put them through because they are the implementors. 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’s why we invited them, they are more than 200 and we are stepping down and giving them the necessary skills.
“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. 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.
“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.”
Responding on how many trees the plan to plant, Kabir said: “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.
“So, we are pledging and we are trying to see with this kind of stakeholding we can be able 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 delpino flo which has a capacity beyond tractor machinery that we are going to use in order to prepare land for restoration.
“You can use delpino flo 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.”
When asked how this can be achieved when people cut trees to use for firewood because of poverty, he noted that: “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.
“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.
“Most of the communities, over 86 percent of Bauchi people, the households use firewoods 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%.
“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.”
Also speaking, the Commissioner of Environment and Housing, Danlami Kawule, said that his Ministry is working in close collaboration with ACReSAL, BASEPA and the Ministry of Water Resources to protect the environment.
He said: “We are here meeting together and sharing ideas and acquiring more knowledge in order to carry out land restoration largely. From the Ministry of Environment, BASEPA and ACReSAL, we’re working as a team to make sure that we create awareness regularly to the entire people of Bauchi.
“We are not resting on our oars I’m ensuring that we address the issues of climate change in Bauchi. We are embarking on massive tree planting across the state and we are creating awareness to discourage human activities that cause climate change, we’re doing a lot of things together as a team.”
He assured that his Ministry will sustain the war against cutting down of trees for firewood but however, lamented that what is a hindrance is the inadequate manpower to achieve success.
“The challenge we have is the issue of personnel. We don’t have enough personnel to be every where and that is why even if we are covering this angle, they will go to the other angle. But we are doing the much that we can because we are working with professionals,” he said.
The Commissioner of Water Resources, Nuhu Zaki, commended the Ministry of Environment for its efforts towards protecting the environment and assured of his Ministry’s readiness to continue the collaboration in order to achieve the desired objectives of the project.
He called on participants to: “Take whatever knowledge you get from here down to the grassroots where this is most needed so that there will be a better life and good health for the people there. It is because of the lack of these that people suffer from diseases, there is so much water and wind pollution.
“It is even as a result of these that Bauchi has been listed among states that because of climate change, there is a prediction by NiMET that there will be shortage of rainfall this year. Our prayer is that these kinds of knowledge that people get and what the participants will implement when they go back, will all help in addressing this environment degradation.”
Also speaking, the Senior Special Assistant to the Bauchi State Governor on ACReSAL, Adamu Abubakar Barde, charged the participants to be deliberate ensuring that the investment of government on the project is not wasted.
“So many times, you’ll see a project like this sometimes from the government and sometimes from the people concerned. The government has paid its counterpart funds to this project, about N500 million, it is now left to the stakeholders, the farmers, the forestry officers, and all concerned to make sure the fully participate in the project. They should put in there best towards actualizing the set goals so that the government money is not wasted,” he appealed.
DISCLAIMER
The OPINION / COLUMN is authored by independent contributors to the National Accord Newspaper. While contributors adhere to our editorial guidelines, they are not employed by the National Accord Newspaper. The perspectives and opinions expressed herein are solely those of the author and do not represent the views of the National Accord Newspaper or its staff.
Leave a Reply