The Director General, National Agency for the Great Green Wall (NAGGW), Dr. Yusuf Maina Bukar, has demonstrated the use of Dutch invention, known as the Groasis Waterboxx that assures a 90% survival rate for plant seedlings.
He made this disclosure during the maiden launch of the Great Green Wall in Abuja.
The NAGGW boss said the Waterboxx functions as a plant incubator, sheltering both the newly planted seedling and the ground around it from the heat of the sun, while providing water for the plant.
“The lid collects water from rain and nighttime condensation, which is then stored in the bucket.
Dr. Bukar noted that the initiative is being implemented across 22 African countries and has been uplifting thousands of communities across the continent.
“In Nigeria, the National Agency for the Great Green Wall (NAGGW), under the Federal Ministry of Environment, was established by Act of Parliament in 2015, to pursue the laudable vision of the African Union and its Heads and State of Governments when they adopted and launched the Great Green Wall for the Sahara and Sahel Initiative (GGWSSI) in 2007.
“The major objectives of “transforming Nigerian drylands” by the Agency are through: afforestation, reforestation, provision of alternative sources of cooking and energy use.
“The Agency has since 2015 made a considerable progress in adapting and mitigating to the impact of emerging climate change risks in the frontline states of Borno, Yobe, Jigawa, Kano, Katsina, Zamfara, Sokoto, Kebbi, Bauchi, Gombe and Adamawa, by sequestering Carbon dioxide (CO2) in our shelterbelt plantation, woodlot plantation, orchard plantation, Gum Arabic (acacia) plantation, indigenous tree plantation, social forestry, farm forestry, institutional planting, and by large scale restoration of forest lands,” he explained.
Dr Bukar added that It has also intervened directly by providing and empowering the women and the vulnerable living within and near its GGW corridor.
DG lamented that the Agency is faced with the challenges of providing adequate amount of water at its plantations. Hence, the move towards adoption of alternative sources of energy such as solar, wind, biofuel and others.
According to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), the Great Green Wall (GGW) is envisioned to be “the largest living structure on the planet, one that stretches 8,000km across Africa, ushering in a new era of sustainability and economic growth.
“It was launched in 2007 by the African Union, as a game-changing African-led Great Green Wall initiative that aims to restore the continent’s degraded landscapes and transform millions of lives in the Sahel.
Earlier remarks, Permanent Secretary Ibrahim Yusufu Idris, Said there is the need to foster increased mobilization and sensitization campaigns on ecological challenges such as drought, desertification, land degradation as well as climate change.
He added that to achieve this, aggressive afforestation and reforestation activities are desirable at national and sub-national levels.
“We are committed in ensuring that the mandates establishing the Agency by the Federal Government are pursued vigorously within the framework of the available resources to meet the Nationally Determined Contribution and reduction of Greenhouse Gas emission as much as possible.
He stressed that the need to carry along every stakeholder to combat deforestation, drought, desertification, land degradation and the challenges of climate change.
