By Mashe Umaru Gwamna
As the world celebrates world environment day( WED).
The federal government said it has implemented programmes
that will restore degraded landscapes and promote sustainable land management practices that will enhance the resilience of communities to drought and desertification.
Minister of Environment, Balarabe Lawal stated this in Abuja during the commemoration of 2024 World Environment Day tagged; ”Land Restoration, Desertification and Drought Resilience”.
Lawal said this year’s theme revealed “not just the importance of protecting what we have but also the need to restore and rejuvenate our agricultural landscape”.
He said this is in order to ensure food security and to sustain a healthy ecosystem for the future generation.
The Minister reiterated that the action resonates deeply with this administration’s Renewed Hope Agenda aimed at sustainable development and environmental stewardship.
He emphasized that even though there are challenges, the government has done a lot towards restoration of the environment, saying much work still needs to be done.
The Minister also called for recommitment to the goal of accelerating land restoration, enhancing drought resilience, and combating desertification.
“We have strengthened partnerships with local communities, civil society organizations, and international partners to mobilize resources and expertise towards reviving our lands, ecosystem and the environment in general”, he said.
He said “For us to restore our lands the more, it requires concerted efforts of all stakeholders, includingGovernment Agencies, Private Sector, Academia, and Civil Society Organizations (CSO’s) to but all hand on deck to fight challenges.
Similarly,the state minister for environment, Iziaq Adekunle ,in his paper presentation titled NIGERIA: Mobilizing for Nature For Our Future, stated that Nigeria is known as a global hotspot for primate species with most endangered gorilla subspecies on earth, Gorilla gorilla diehill found only in a couple of protected areas in the county.
He said the benefit of Nigeria’s biodiversity is estimated to be over 8 billion USD per annum. “Nigeria’s biodiversity is a global public good that has value for the entire world. Thus, we should be frontal in leading to galvanize world attention to nature-based solutions and nature financing”.
While calling on the nations of the Global North to shake off the current apathy around their commitment to deliver at least 20 billion USD annually in international biodiversity finance to developing countries by 2025 and 30 billion USD by 2030.
“ I call for more investments on nature in Nigeria and the global south countries, who today ate the stewards of global biodiversity. When we invest in nature, we protect our ecosystems, safeguard our people, provide good jobs among others.”
While also launching the climate justice youth ambassadors and annual environmental schools quiz competition(the ministers cup), the Climate Justice Project Coordinator, OXFAM, Kenneth Akpan,said the launch was borne out of the AACI project to tap into the strength and capacity of youths as solution bearers to the country’s climate challenges.
