President Muhammadu Buhari says Africa can achieve the ‘Great Green Wall’ initiative, which is the continent’s effort to restore over 100 million hectares of degraded landscape for productive agriculture.
The President stated this yesterday at the ongoing Climate Change Summit, (COP26) in Glasgow, Scotland.
He expressed optimism at a side event on the Great Green Wall, co-hosted by French President, Emmanuel Macron, the Prince of Wales and the Mauritanian President, Mohamed Ould Ghazouani.
Speaking on the theme of the event, “Accelerating land restoration in Africa, the case of the Great Green Wall initiative,” the Nigerian leader said it was noteworthy that the meeting was tailored towards ameliorating the problems of land degradation, desertification, depletion of the forest ecosystems and biodiversity in Africa.
President Buhari recounted that one of the major outcomes of the fourth edition of the One Planet Summit on Bio-diversity, organised by the French Government in Paris, France on January 11, 2021, was the pledge of $19.6 billion by the coalition of international communities to upscale the implementation of the Great Green Wall Initiative in Africa.
Appreciating the international partners for bringing environmental issues in Africa to the limelight, the President described the Bi-diversity Summit as a direct response to the request for support by African leaders to the global communities on addressing Africa’s environmental challenges.
Highlighting Nigeria’s role in actualising the land restoration initiative, President Buhari told the side event, which was held on the margins of COP-26 World Leaders Summit, that the country participated in drafting and harmonising the Results Framework for the Accelerator with five cardinal pillars to address the 2021- 2030 Decennial Priority Investment Plan ambition of the Great Green Wall.
Nigeria is part of the 193 countries that have ratified the UN Convention to Combat Desertification.
