ACReSAL: salvaging 19 Northern States’ land degradation challenges

IT would not be out of place to assert that our inability to maintain existing foundations laid by our past leaders in the area of managing our environments is what turns out to hunt us today. Our cognitive ability to imagine how we first came to settle on where we so claimed to be our ancestral land, never occurred to us that managing this free gift of God is a gap between life and our corporate existence.

It is quite unfortunate that, our attitudes toward the environment in this part of the world is so poor that its rippled effect is gradually consuming us. We freely soared high without trying to understand the composition there in the beautiful God-given vegetation we live and feed on.

We became so comfortable and complacent to the point that, we pay less attention to the consuming wave of climate change that started like a distant drone decades ago. This is because of our poor land use attitude which has generated serious ecological and security problems in our communities, which we unknowingly blamed it to natural occurrences.

Before now, we used to hear from a distance, on air, some of these climatic change challenges happening across the shores of Africa and we thought their case was a peculiar one or rather, assumed to be some kind of sin committed by their ancestors and never dreamed that could come this close some day.

However, when we hear other countries crying of environmental challenges arising from climate change and land degradation, we thought it was not a sub-Saharan African problem because we so pride in how green our land is, believing that none of such problems would come any near us and we ignorantly kept resting on our oars comfortably.

It may interest you to know that, way back in the early 70s and late 80s, conscious plans and arrangements were put in place to avert any possible land degradation that might arise through climate change challenges. Yes, our forefathers were predominantly farmers and have better understanding of what it means to temper with their farmlands and never took chances.

They set up programmes that would help address such possible occurrences. In fact, there were earth dams constructed by previous governments specifically for agricultural purposes, but that later was not taken seriously and we lost it along the line.

Unfortunately, our forest were turned into money making centres where fire woods are extracted, exposing our forest to all manners of negative human activities. Our beautiful forest became so porous as a result of indiscriminate felling of trees for charcoal and fire wood without recourse to the ravaging effects on our existence as a people.

It is sad that authorities saddled with safeguarding our forest were not empowered to sustain the old practice of employing Forest Guards. Of course, there used to be Forest Guards under the Ministry of Environment and that of Agriculture, who inspect or monitor human activities around our forest and reserves to make sure that, serious penalties are meted on whoever fell down trees without licence and it was well coordinated, but the story is quite different today.

What went wrong along the line is what craves for answer from those in authority before now. Where are those Forest Guards or Foresters who used to man our Forest Parks and Reserves? Where are those Extension workers who arrest people who fell trees illegally? Where are those agencies and institutions known for grooming landscape, architects and gardeners who later enrolled in the system? All are today stories!

Today, millions of hectares of our beautiful forest are destroyed yearly and we can no longer see the forest for the trees any more, because of how reckless we have been to our environment. We have as well been careless to the point that, we fell trees and do not see the need to plant as a replacement or fall back mechanism, to help protect our land for agricultural activities that happened to be our mainstay as northerners.

It is no longer news that, the consuming impacts arising from this carelessness is now knocking at our doorsteps. There is no much manpower these days to monitor our forest again, leaving our forest at the mercy of criminal elements who turned them into hubs for terrorism, kidnapping and banditry.

Apart from the activities of these criminal elements, it has also given rise to massive migration from desert prone areas toward the north central part of Nigeria and it has become a serious security challenge. There now exist herders/farmers clashes, unprovoked attacks, destruction of farm produce and land grabbing, generating series of reprisals with reports of bloodshed in rural communities.

However, the intervention by the World Bank through the Agro-Climatic Resilience in Semi Arid Landscapes (ACReSAL) Project, was a welcomed one. The project is World Bank assisted, aimed at addressing challenges of land degradation and climate change in Northern Nigeria on a multi-dimensional scale.
The vision, mission and Project Development Objective of ACReSAL are to address environmental challenges arising from climate change and poor land-use practices in Northern Nigeria and to also have strong practices and policies on ecological restoration and climate change resilient community.

It was approved by the World Bank Board of Directors December 16, 2021 with a slogan; “GREENING THE ENVIRONMENT, SAVING LIVES”, and it became effective in June 2022. The project duration is set for six (6) years and will be closed March 31, 2028 where states of implementation will be in the 19 Northern States of Nigeria, including the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja respectively.

According to the ACReSAL FAQ, the World Bank has earmarked and approved over seven hundred million dollars ($700m) for this intervention and the project will help restore 1 million hectres of degraded land in the northern part of the country.

“This will contribute to the Federal Government of Nigeria’s objective/commitment of restoring four (4) million hectares of degraded land set for broader landscapes restoration by 2030. The Project will also help reduce the vulnerability of millions of the extremely poor people in northern Nigeria and strengthen their own role in line with achieving environmental sustainability”, it disclosed.

Ironically, what supposedly should have gulped less money to recover or maintain has caused us hugely to the extend that, it affects both human and physical resources. If not for the World Bank magnanimity and intervention, what would have been our case in the near future, since all we do is paying lips service to even issues of great importance?

This ACReSAL Project according to information available, has four (4) Components which include: A- Dryland Management that deals with integrated watershed management planning and addresses challenges of large-scale watershed degradation in northern Nigeria. It will support the following sub-components: Strategic Watershed Planning, Landscape Investments and Special Ecosystems restoration.

Some of these components to be implemented were, Community Climate Resilience; Institutional Strengthening and Project Management and Component Contingent Emergency Response Component (CERC) which has the financing mechanism available to Borrowers in Investment Project Financing (IPF) operations to enable quick deployment of uncommitted funds to respond to an eligible crisis or emergency.
However, the proactive steps taken by the National Project Coordinator, Abdulhamid Umar, was a pointer to the fact that, respite has come to the communities affected by these land degradation and climate change. He, has since inauguration swung into action by reaching out to all necessary corners to formally kick start the project, as he engaged the National Space Research Development Agency (NASRDA).

The engagement was a Four-Day Training on the Application of Geographic Information System (GIS) and Remote Sensing Technology for Sustainable Landscape Management involving all critical stakeholders and Project Coordinators drawn from the 19 Northern Nigeria States and FCT, organised by the National Centre For Remote Sensing (NCRS) Jos, in collaboration with Agro-climatic Resilience in Semi-Arid Landscape (ACReSAL), held at Steffan Hotel and Suites, Rayfield Jos, Plateau State.

As if that was not enough, the ACReSAL National Project Coordinator, alongside the World Bank Representative and ACReSAL Project Task Team Leader, Dr Joy Iganya Agene, and the host Project Coordinator of Plateau State, Mr. Gabriel Gowon Gonkol, saw the dear need to embarked on a deep-dive Component B capacity building training for over 250 participants drawn from the 19 northern Nigeria states.
All these engagements and trainings were held in Jos, the Plateau State for almost two weeks ahead of the grand “Project Launch” last Thursday July 27, 2023 which witnessed the presence of the Nigeria Country Director of World Bank, Shubham Chaudhuri, and the Executive Governor of Plateau State, His Excellency, Barr. Caleb Manasseh Mutfwang, at the occasion with both rural and urban communities participating.
Considering the important roles the Traditional Institutions will play in the smooth take off of this project, the team first paid homage to the Chairman, Plateau State Traditional Council and Gbong Gwom Jos, His Majesty, Da Jacob Gyang Buba, in his Palace at Jishe Jos, where the Paramount Ruler encouraged them to take advantage of this great opportunity to bring back the lost glory of an agritarian nature of northern Nigeria.

Meanwhile, as part of their continuous oversight programme, the workaholic Abdulhamid Umar, who is the National Project Coordinator, did not see it as enough after the hectic Grand Project Launch, but embarked on a Fieldwork to degraded sites in Plateau State.

It is our prayers that this project will help address some of the avoidable challenges that we have been facing. There is no part of these 19 States that has not been affected by land degradation and climate change and should not be taken seriously.

This is because of the numerous mining activities that took place in the past and other natural occurrences the region found itself, hence the need for the respective front tiers to operate an all inclusive policy where all will benefit so that, no part of the north will be left behind. God bless Northern Nigeria! God bless Nigeria!