The Nigeria Erosion and Watershed Management Project (NEWMAP) reports that Nigeria has the highest rate of deforestation in the world.
Mr. Salisu Dahiru, the National Coordinator of NEWMAP reported on Tuesday in Benin in a lecture entitled “Managing land degradation in Nigeria: the challenges, action and remediation”.
At the 10th Environmental Outreach Magazine public lecture and environmental awards, he noted that Nigeria losses between 450,000 and 600,000 hectares of forest annually.
He identified population pressure, deforestation, bush burning, over-grazing, agricultural depletion of soil nutrients through poor farming, inappropriate irrigation and indiscriminate mining as some of the causes of land degradation in Nigeria.
Dahiru said that NEWMAP had succeeded in reclaiming some land lost to degradation.
He said that inconsistency in policies, inadequate budgetary and unhealthy rivalry between environmental agencies adversely affected management of degradation and deforestation in the country.
He said that addressing the challenge required political will in terms of funding, policy execution and stakeholders cooperation.
MM/GIK/APA