Read in
Minister of Environment, Mohammed Abdullahi has inaugurated new Governing Council on National Forestry Trust Fund to tackle the challenges militating against overall forestry development and sustainable environment in the country.
Performing the ceremony in Abuja, Abdullahi stated that the government has taken a number of critical steps towards assuaging these problems, which include: development and strengthening of policy; legal and institutional framework.
Others, he continued, an increased investments in tree planting; stakeholders’ technical capacity building/strengthening; stronger collaboration with national and international partners; improved funding for forestry sector as exemplified by the setting up of the National Forestry Trust Fund (NFTF) in 2019.
The fund was particularly established to address the critical issue of inadequate or lack of funding within the forestry sector through its ability to generate additional and complementary sources of funding to supplement government budgetary provisions.
“It envisages funding support from international donors, corporate organisations, private sector, Non-Governmental Organisation (NGOs) and individual resources for sustenance and to leveraging the seed fund from the CITES permit to carry out forestry development activities in the past few years,” Abdullahi added.
The minister urged the council to mobilise resources for the trust fund to achieve its objectives as forests play critical role in climate amelioration.
“We are on top of the situation by providing alternative livelihoods to rural dwellers, as well as prioritising commitment to achieving National Determined contributions through aggressive tree planting, restoration of degraded land and reversing the ugly trend of deforestation and improve investment in the sector.”
The members are: Abdullahi Enakhume , Chairman, Dr. Daniel Galadima, Vice-Chairman; Halima Jabiru, Mohammed Sagir and representative of Forestry Research Institute of Nigeria (FRIN), National Parks Service (NPS), Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.
Others, Nigeria Custom Service (NCS) Director General, Nigerian Conservation Foundation (NCF), Nigeria Environmental Study Action Team (NEST), Wood Exporters Association of Nigeria, Saw Millers Association of Nigeria, while Director of Forestry will serve as Secretary.
Responding, Enakhume said, West Africa and Nigeria is poor as far as conservation of fauna and biodiversity are concerned, saying, before it was 10 percent of our landmass deforested but now the figure has reduced drastically.
“We are called to do our best by making all things possible to bring back something for the next generations. We will try all strategies to meet with the target given by the government. There should be Tree or Plant Rights so that it will checkmate burning the,” he added.