COP26: Africa working to restore 100m hectares of degraded landscape, says Buhari

President Muhammadu Buhari says Africa’s ambition of restoring over 100 million hectares of degraded landscape for agricultural production is achievable.

Buhari spoke on Monday during a side event on the Great Green Wall (GGW) initiative at the ongoing climate change summit in Glasgow, Scotland.

The side event titled ‘Accelerating Land Restoration in Africa: The Case of the Great Green Wall Initiative’, was co-hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron, the Prince of Wales, and President Mohamed Ould Ghazouani of Mauritania.

Buhari said Nigeria, which will soon to take up leadership of the GGW initiative, will ensure that problems of land degradation, desertification, depletion of the forest ecosystems and biodiversity in Africa are addressed.

‘‘With all hands on deck and concerted efforts at land restoration by African leaders, I am optimistic that Africa’s ambition of restoring over 100 million hectares of degraded landscape for productive agriculture is achievable,” he said.

‘‘Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, I am pleased to inform you that Nigeria will soon be assuming the leadership of the Conference of Heads of State and Government of the Pan African Agency of the Great Green Wall.

‘‘Nigeria pledges her unalloyed commitment to expanding the achievements of the GGW programme in Africa from the enviable status attained under the leadership of His Excellency, Mohamed Ould Ghazouani, President of the Islamic Republic of Mauritania.

‘‘Together, we commit to the transformative process of restoring the African degraded landscape and ultimately the continent’s environment.”

Buhari appreciated the $19 billion pledge made by international communities at the fourth edition of the ‘One Planet’ summit on biodiversity to upscale the implementation of the GGW initiative in Africa.

‘‘Since the pledges by the financial partners, the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification has continued to give technical backstopping to the Pan African Agency of the Great Green Wall through the establishment of Great Green Wall Accelerator for the 2021-2030 Decennial Priority Investment Plan for the Great Green Wall programme,” he said.

‘‘This is to fast-track the implementation process with the prime purpose of translating the pledged financial resources of 19.681 billion United States dollars into hectares of land restoration and other livelihood improvements at various country levels.”

According to a statement by Garba Shehu, presidential spokesman, Buhari also spoke on Nigeria’s role in actualising the land restoration initiative, adding that the country participated in drafting and harmonising the results framework for the accelerator with five cardinal pillars to address the 2021 to 2030 priority investment plan ambition of the GGW.

According to him, the five cardinal pillars include: the restoration of 100 million hectares of degraded land; sequestration of 250 million tonnes of carbon; creation of 10 million green jobs; resilient economic development in the various member states, as well as capacity strengthening and development.