Combating desertification in Nigeria with a “Green Wall”

Community Plant Nurseries Community nurseries have been established in 92 communities to decentralize seedling production and distribution, and reduce problems associated with seedling transportation. Each community nursery is fenced, provided with solar powered borehole and can produce 50,000 tree seedlings per annum. It is envisaged that more than 40% of the required seedlings for shelterbelts, […]

Community Plant Nurseries
Community nurseries have been established in 92 communities to decentralize seedling production and distribution, and reduce problems associated with seedling transportation. Each community nursery is fenced, provided with solar powered borehole and can produce 50,000 tree seedlings per annum. It is envisaged that more than 40% of the required seedlings for shelterbelts, woodlots, orchards and agro-forestry will be sourced from the community nurseries.
The community nurseries receive materials and technical support from the GGW Programme, while the local communities contribute labour and management.
Training and Engagement of Forest Guards
In 2014 a total of 305 forest guards were trained and engaged in their respective communities for the management of shelterbelts, woodlots, orchards and nurseries.
Land Resources and Rural Infrastructural Development
It is the vision of the Nigerian Great Green Wall Programme to create vibrant, equitable and sustainable rural communities through strategic investment in social and economic infrastructure. This will enable rural communities to address basic human needs, while engaging in economic activities.  Minimum amount of investment in social infrastructure such as watering points, roads, tracks, market places, grain input stores etc, can contribute significantly towards rural poverty alleviation.
Water Supply
Water scarcity and drought affect over 20 million people in the drylands of Nigeria, threatening livelihoods and food security. In these areas, people particularly women and children spend a whole day searching for water. Water is the most valuable commodity sought by the people and their livestock to survive the harsh environmental condition of the drylands.  In order to improve access to water in the affected communities, the GGW Programme from September 2013 – September 2014 constructed 92 boreholes in 92 communities as sources of water for the people and their livestock, as well as livelihood activities. These boreholes are renewable energy driven or powered (solar and wind) to ensure uninterrupted and sustainable water supply.  In all the communities provided with boreholes, water stress has soothed and women and children no longer trek a whole day searching for water.  It has been estimated that about 149,580 people and 1,207,567 livestock are benefiting from the 92 boreholes provided.
Rural Energy
More than 95% of the rural population in the dry region of Nigeria relies heavily on traditional biomass based fuels (fuelwood, crop residues and animal dung) for meeting its energy needs. The overreliance of the growing population on biomass-based fuels contributes significantly to deforestation, land degradation and desertification in the affected areas. GGW addresses this problem through the development and promotion of improved wood stoves and other alternative energy devices such as solar cookers and biogas stoves.
Rural Livelihoods
Improving the welfare of inhabitants of the drylands can be strengthened, either through the enhancement of existing livelihoods or the promotion of alternative ones. The diversification of income for the rural poor in the drylands is vital to reducing the risks of cropping from marginal lands and environmental pressure on erodible or degraded lands towards more sustainable levels.
Alternative livelihoods do not depend on traditional land uses and are generally undemanding on land and natural resource use. Alternative livelihoods also have minimal dependence on land primary productivity for producing subsistence products; do not impair the provision of other services of dryland ecosystems; generate more income per investment from local dryland resources, compared with the traditional, land biological production-dependent livelihoods; and provide people with a competitive edge over others who follow the same practices outside drylands. Application of alternative livelihoods therefore must be central to approaches adapted for reversing the downward poverty and desertification spiral in the drylands.
Support for alternative livelihoods is one of the major components of the Great Greenwall Programme with the following specific objectives:
Diversification of income for the affected communities, Reduction of rural poverty, Generation of employment, Reduction of pressure on land resources and land degradation, Enhancement of rural economy, and Curtailment of social unrest and forced migration.
In view of the need to support and promote alternative livelihood activities in the participating communities, the following have been accomplished in 2014:
• Provision of Skill Acquisition center. A skill acquisition center is to be constructed in each of the participating States for the training of unemployed youths in various trades such as carpentry, tailoring, bee keeping, electrical and electronic works, computer maintenance etc
• Formation of Community Based Associations in each of the 135 communities to managed the community orchards, nurseries, vegetable gardens and boreholes
• Train the trainer on plant nurturing for 11 State field and GGW desk officers
• Procurement of 200,000 improved date palm seedlings for distribution to farmers to enhance their income and reduce rural poverty.
• Clearing and fencing of land for the establishment of community orchards and vegetable gardens in each of the 135 communities
CONCLUSION
The Great Green Wall Programme is surely one of the most promising panaceas to the problems of land degradation and desertification in Nigeria and quite achievable. It is a mechanism that can propel the sustainable development of the affected rural communities in the drylands. The success however of the programme lies on building an effective and coalesced actions at local level, taking a holistic approach to supporting people’s livelihoods, building adaptation measures and reduce their vulnerability to environmental shocks, particularly climate change. Consequently, the participatory approach by involving local communities is being strengthened in all the interventions, as well as improve communication with other partners at all levels until a sustainable environment is achieved for the present and future generations.

(Conclusion of the article contributed by Sani Mamman Katsina, National Agency for Great Green Wall, Abuja)