By Mashe Umaru Gwamna
In a major step toward restoring degraded lands and strengthening community resilience in Nigeria’s drylands, stakeholders converged in Birnin Kebbi, Kebbi State, for a validation workshop on the Project Appraisal Document (PAD) of the $3 million Integrated Dryland Ecosystem Rehabilitation, Regeneration and Conservation in Nigeria (IDERRCN) project.
Speaking at the event, the Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Environment, Alh. Adam Kambari, represented by Dr. Alenyi Innocent Onu, Director, Planning, Policy and Coordination of the National Agency for the Great Green Wall, described the workshop as a significant milestone in a process that began in 2021 with sustained technical and financial backing from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Global Environment Facility (GEF).
He noted that Kebbi State was chosen out of three proposed states due to its strategic position along the Sahelian belt and the Great Green Wall corridor.
Kambari emphasized the urgency of the intervention, citing the worsening impacts of land degradation, desertification, and climate-related vulnerabilities across Nigeria’s drylands.
He further explained that the validation workshop serves as a critical springboard for finalizing the PAD and submitting it to the GEF Secretariat by June 20, 2025, for review and endorsement ahead of fullscale implementation.
In his address, the Director General/CEO of the National Agency for the Great Green Wall (NAGGW), Saleh Abubakar, MFR, represented by the Director, Afforestation and Land Management, Alhaji Ahmed Majidadi Bagudo, highlighted the IDERRCN project as a vital component of the regional Transformation Approach to Large Scale Investment in Support of the Implementation of the Great Green Wall Initiative (TALSISI-GGWI), which was approved by the GEF Council in June 2024.
Abubakar, stated that the project targets a total of 5,500 hectares of land restoring 2,500 hectares and enhancing land use on 3,000 hectares of protected landscapes. He said the project cover 15 communities across five Local Government Areas in Kebbi State: Arewa, Augie, Argungu, Bunza, and Dandi located within the Great Green Wall corridor.
