FG launches GWSI project to curb desert encroachment

Abuja – The Federal Government is 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 on Tuesday in Abuja said that the launch would be done by President Goodluck Jonathan in Kano.

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 frontline states in Nigeria and would involve reforestation ranging from development of shelterbelts to woodlots, among others.

The frontline states are Kebbi, Sokoto, Zamfara, Katsina, Jigawa, Yobe, Adamawa, Gombe, Kano, Bauchi and Borno.

The director said a committee had been raised by the Permanent Secretary in the Environment Ministry with members drawn from line ministries at the state and federal levels, as well as the civil society.

Hassan said that the ministry had been working on the components of the project in order to get it started properly.

“The Ministry (of Environment) has been doing a lot on the components of the project knowing that it covers a large area and there will be the need for the government to start the sensitisation process.

“The only way is by flagging off the GWSI, in which Mr President is about to conduct in October,’’ he said.

Hassan said that after the inauguration and the sensitisation process, the ministry would also finalise its action plan for the implementation of the initiative in Nigeria.

He added that a proposal had been drawn up, awaiting review and validation by the Federal Government. (NAN)