Nigeria: Ali Tackles Desertification

How to sto[ desert from spreading? Plant Trees. See this news from Nigeria

In its effort to improve the living conditions of its people, Yobe State government recently prepared a new “policy plan” on halting the rapid spread and devastating effects of desertification and its encroachment on arable land and oasis that are being buried by sand dunes.

The policy plan tagged: “Taming the Desert with Gum Arabic, Neem Seedlings” was a holistic and continuous aforestation project that would prevent the advancement of desertification in the state.

Speaking to newsmen in his office in Damaturu, the state capital, the Commissioner for Environment, Alhaji Musa Dumburi, said that the new policy on fighting desertification and its effects on the people living in 10 council areas was first, to create an enabling environment for the establishment of five nurseries at Damaturu, Potiskum, Bayamari and Nguru, 250 kilometres north-west of the state capital.

According to him, each nursery was to raise not less than 100,000 tree seedlings of gum arabic, neem, pawpaw, procephis, mahogany, citrus, mango and cashew.

He explained that, out of the 500,000 seedlings, 60 per cent or 300,000 seedlings were of gum arabic and neem seedlings while the remaining ones were of other economic trees that could withstand the harsh desert weather conditions.

He said that since the desert encroachment in the state was at 0.6 kilometres per annum, each of the 17 local government areas would be allocated with 1,000 seedlings of gum arabic for the establishment of plantations.

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Battling Desertification in Katsina, Other States

News from Nigeria

Experts have warned that if not given serious attention, desertification which is currently ravaging Katsina and other northern states will affect agricultural projects and consequently exacerbate food crises would its attendant hunger and malnutrition. However, Katsina State has already put certain schemes in place to fight back the desert encroachment.

An environment-threatening phenomenon that, if left unchecked could lead to decline in agricultural production, exacerbates hunger and malnutrition, as well as increase level of existing poverty, is the menace of desertification and desert encroachment, especially in the northern parts of the country.
Recent study shows that desertification has encroached on a 1,650 square kilometers of land mass in the 19 northern states. At speed of 0.6 kilometers per year, fears are being expressed that, if drastic measures are not applied, the desert will in a matter of years spread to other parts of the country.
According to experts, the entire northern region, covering about 38 per cent of the country’s landmass, is at the risk of becoming inhabitable in the near future unless urgent steps are taken to stem the trend. There is also evidence to show that the effect of desertification is already taking its toll on plants, animals and humans.
Worst hit by the twin problem are states bordering Niger Republic, including Katsina, Kebbi and Sokoto States. Other states affected are Adamawa, Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Jigawa, Kano and Zamfara, which are buffeted by combined forces of north-eastern trade wind from the Sahara Desert and those originating from the local environment. The result is that heavy soil particles, which are swept away with no resistance due to lack of wind-breakers, are later deposited to form desert ‘mountains’ globally known as sand dunes.

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Nigeria: Desert Encroachment – UN Pays for Tree-Planting

25 April 2008
Posted to the web 25 April 2008

Imam Imam
Gusau

In an effort to halt desert encroachment, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), has concluded plans to pay up to $10 per stand, to any farmer that plants and maintains 10 seedlings of trees that survive for five years.

This is part of measures aimed at curtailing the speed and approach of the Sahara, which experts say is progressing into the hinterland at the pace of two kilometre per annum.

Zamfara State government said it has awarded contract for planting of five kilometre shelter belt in Zurmi, Shinkafi, Maradun, Kaura Namoda, Mafara and Bakura local governments. Making this known yesterday while fielding questions from reporters on activities of his ministry, Commissioner for Environment and Solid Minerals, Alhaji Abubakar Muhammad Maru, said the state government has also awarded contract for the establishment of two kilometres of road-side plantation in all the 14 local government areas, which will include fencing of demarcated areas, planting and watering of the plantation up to maturity level.

He said the issue of desert encroachment is receiving serious attention from government and all efforts will be made to halt the menace.

Speaking on the effort to commercialise the state’s abundant neem tree potential, he said government decided to put the trees into proper use, while discussions will soon commence with Chinese experts and the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology, on the establishment of orgao-need fertiliser, as well as pesticides and raw materials for pharmaceutical industries.

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This is the famous Parassinikadavu Temple

Planting and forgetting is not enough: the Nigeria story

KANO, 8 April 2008 (IRIN) – Of the 50 million seedlings planted every year in the 11 northern Nigeria states worst effected by desertification, 37.5 million wither and die within two months, environmental officials say.

“The 12.5 million seedlings that make it to maturity are not enough to create a deforestation-reforestation equilibrium, especially given the fact that a large number of the trees that grow are later chopped down,” Kabiru Yammama of the National Forest Conservation Council of Nigeria [NFCCN] told IRIN.

People in the north use an estimates 40.5 million tonnes of firewood each year, he said. At the same time, the desert is encroaching at an estimated annual rate of between 8 and 30 hectares in the 11 states, which are Borno, Yobe, Bauchi, Gombe, Adamawa, Jigawa, Kano, Katsina, Zamfara, Sokoto and Kebbi.

Around 35 percent of the arable land there has been overtaken by desert in the last 50 years, he added

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Nigeria: Country’s Forest Could Go By 2020

Grace Azubuike
Abuja

Forests in Nigeria will be cleared entirely within 12 years if current rates of deforestation are not reduced, according to the country’s national forest conservation council (NFCCN).

The heavy reliance on wood for fuel – 40 million tonnes per year – is taking a heavy toll on the nation’s forest resources which are burnt for charcoal. The lack of reforestation activity means clearing is not being offset by new plantings.

“Considering the rate at which trees are chopped down without any regeneration efforts, all of Nigeria’s forests will disappear by 2020,” Kabiru Yammama told Agence France-Presse.

With forests almost gone in the north of the country already, the loss of tree cover is also thought to be helping accelerate the spread of deserts and reduce farming land. A report by the NFCCN last year estimated that 35 per cent of arable land had been lost to desertification in the north over the last 50 years

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