In a bid to address the high rate of forest cover depletion, Nigeria has demonstrated commitment and political will to the UN programme on Reducing Emission from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD).
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!The National Coordinator of the programme, Mr Salisu Dahiru, said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Wednesday.
Dahiru said Nigeria was among the first countries that submitted their national document on REDD, adding that the project would help to mitigate the impact of climate change on the citizenry.
Dahiru explained that the document spelt out how a country planned to conserve its forests with the aim of earning carbon credit, and also mitigating the effects of climate change.
According to him, Nigeria completed the process of getting the document in one year whereas it took other countries two to three years.
He said that the document encapsulates all the activities Nigeria intended to do to achieve the set targets.
He said the targets included to reduce or halt deforestation and forest degradation and to conserve the remaining forest.
Others are to expand the forest estate from what it was today to the FAO standard of at least 20 per cent to 25 per cent of total land area.
“The UN REDD policy board saw a lot of political will from the government of Nigeria.
“It saw that the programme enjoyed a lot of support from forest communities in Nigeria and on that basis, we were elected to serve as the co-chair to the board.’’
The coordinator explained that the scope of REDD was decided at the 2009 Copenhagen Climate Change Conference that took place in Denmark, noting that the conference also agreed that REDD should be implemented in phases.
The first phase, he said, involved capacity building, setting the institution and getting support from donor agencies to prepare for the project.
“ Nigeria is in phase one of doing capacity building and other activities.
“The phase two continues with capacity building, then a National strategy for REDD is expected to be developed after which the foundation would be laid for private sector investment.
“When the phase two is completed, there will now be an investment phase; that investment stage is being negotiated, they have not agreed finally on how this investment will be.’’
The coordinator further explained that Nigeria had approached the UN and indicated its interest to participate in the UN REDD programme between 2009 and 2011, bearing in mind its deforestation rate.
According to him, Nigeria is said to be among the countries that have the highest rate of deforestation in the world.
NAN reports that REDD+ is a programme put together by three UN agencies — FAO, UNDP and UN Environment Programme — to assist developing countries to address the problems of deforestation. (NAN)
