Deforestation has triggered displacement across the world and is forcing millions of people to migrate from urban to rural communities across the planet, a former heard of Anatomy Department, Kaduna state University (KASU), Dr. Yusuf Nadabo has said.
Speaking during an event at Teku Farms in Kaduna, Nadabo who is the Patron, African Climate Reporters said the world must rise-up and face the reality of deforestation adding, “We should tell ourselves the truth and find new ways of tackling the speed of desertification that is affecting agricultural land and forcing millions of people into migration from urban to rural areas.”
He said, “Each year, millions of hectares of land are lost to deforestation and the situation is worse in African due to lack of dedication by both NGOs/CSO and authorities concerned and it is trying to turn the region into a monstrous challenges that could affect every sector.
“According to the UN agencies, land degradation affects 1.5 billion people globally, Africa loses about 80 million tons of cereal crops from about 105 million hectares of croplands which can be prevented if soil erosion is curbed.”
He called on all Nigerians, NGO’s, CSO’s, youth and religious organization to re-double effort toward supporting the government in the daily battle against desertification adding,
“The Great Green wall is a pan-African proposal to plant a wall of trees at the southern edge of the Sahara Desert to battle desertification with a strip of land from Dakar to Djibouti is 15 km (9 mi) wide and 7,100 km (4,400 mi) long.”
Dr. Nadabo called on Kaduna state government to introduce tougher punishment for bush burners and people cutting down trees illegally in the forest with a view to addressing deforestation.
Earlier in his opening remark ,Mallam Ibrahim salisu who is the founder of Teku international farm kaduna that organizes the event , told journalists shortly after his presentation that, the event was organize toward supporting kaduna state government with over 550 different varies of trees species , in other to combat desertification that is encroaching the state,and to rise more awareness on 17 th June, international day to combat desertification.
Ibrahim said,for the past 3 months,kaduna state has declare state of emergency in its forestry ,so as to halt the speed of deforestation ,desertification ,and save young trees that are facing problems due to continuous demand for domestic used and other climatic factors.
He said,the demand for charcoal is becoming another big problems disturbing the existence of African forestry,hence the need to stand up and support the government in the fight against desertification through donating trees and also used other means of informing the society on the danger of cutting down tress with planting a new one.
(Deseartification is real and is affecting all aspect of human life,hence the need to support the government against deforestation )
Ibrahim says ,millions of people from north-eastern Nigeria were force to migrate due to the effect of desertification and how it affected their farmland and the environement they lived
Adding that,the best way to halt the speed of desertification that is turning agricultural land to sahara is to plant trees,and sensitize the public on the implication of cutting down tress without planting a new once
Pointing out that, the Continuous cultivation without adding supplements, overgrazing, lack of soil and water conservation structures, and indiscriminate bushfires aggravate the process of desertification.
Ibrahim further said,every year,he use to plant over 80,000 different spacies of trees ,and half of its goes to some part of the states ,while some also goes to the neighboring African countries
He says,Many companies from neighboring countries do usually comes and buys tress and take it to their countries for planting,in other to protect their environment ,
“Communities, CSOs should engaged in trees planting, practical planting of tree and make sure this trees grows to maturity, and then policies should follow, for instance; if there is a policy like ‘cut down one tree and plant five new ones, that will help in maintaining.
“Even if people use trees for cooking fuel, it won’t cause any challenge as such because there is enough restoration and replenishing of the trees that has been cut down, but if we allow it to go fallow, then one day we will wake-up not having any tree.”
