NCF launches Nigeria’s green recovery scheme

Towards retaining a significant proportion of Nigeria’s landmass under forest, the Nigerian Conservation Foundation (NCF) has begun a new initiative known as Green Recovery Nigeria (GRN).

The initiative aims to establish a forest rehabilitation scheme in 25 per cent (230,942 sq. km) of Nigeria’s total landmass (923,768 sq. km) from 2017 to 2047, while simultaneously promoting actions to curb deforestation and forest degradation.

The group said after its 2016 Annual Dinner Dance to raise funds for GRN implementation, that Nigeria lost 36 per cent of its primary forests between 1990 and 2005, thus putting our dear country second to Honduras and among the 10 countries with the highest deforestation rate in the world.

“The grim reality is that by 2046, Nigeria’s forestland will be reduced to grasslands in the absence of an intervention. The implication of this on national stability will no doubt be catastrophic as forest dependent people will be stripped of their livelihood,” according to NCF Director General, Mr. Adeniyi Karunwi.

He said the initiative became necessary because forest is a renewable natural resource and its stock has become diminished because the rate of exploitation has exceeded its regenerative capacity.

Karunwi added that without an intervention such as GRN, by 2046, Nigeria’s forestland will be reduced to grasslands and the implication of that on national stability will no doubt be catastrophic, as forest dependent people will be stripped of their livelihood.

President of the Foundation, Chief Philip Asiodu, who unveiled the GRN programme, said the Green Recovery Nigeria would involve engagement with the stakeholders and encouraging private and community participation in plantations and forest development.

This, according to him, “is to ensure regeneration of degraded forests through enrichment planting and effective participatory forest management.”

Asiodu said the programme was a rare opportunity for corporate organisations and individuals to partner with NCF in any capacity in the drive toward a cleaner and greener economy.

He, therefore, said such nationwide participation was important for the success of the programme and the GRN would be operated under a number of conservation modules tailor-made for corporate organisations and individuals willing to support the project.