From Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye, Abuja
President Muhammadu Buhari has expressed confidence that Africa’s ambition of restoring over 100 million hectares of degraded landscape for productive agriculture is achievable.
The president expressed the optimism in Glasgow, Scotland at the Climate Change Summit, COP 26, side event on the Great Green Wall (GGW), co-hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron, the Prince of Wales, and the Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould Ghazouani.
According to a statement by Senior Special Assistant, Garba Shehu, Buhari, who spoke on the theme of the event: “Accelerating land restoration in Africa, the case of the Great Green Wall initiative,” 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.
“With all hands on deck and concerted efforts at land restoration by African leaders, I am optimistic Africa’s ambition of restoring over 100 million hectares of degraded landscape for productive agriculture is achievable.
“I am pleased to inform you that Nigeria will soon be assuming the leadership of 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 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,” he said.
President Buhari recounted that one of the major outcomes of the fourth edition of the One Planet Summit on Biodiversity, 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 GGW initiative in Africa.