ABUJA, Nigeria – Mediaage NG News – In pursuance of the aspirations toward actualizing the vision of the ACReSAL project aimed at having strong practices and policies on ecological restoration and climate resilient communities, the leadership of the project on Tuesday had an institutional policy engagement meeting involving three lead implementing Ministries of Environment, Agriculture & Food Security, Water Resources & Sanitation and other key institutions, including the World Bank team.
The aim of the meeting held in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, was in recognition of an urgent need for robust policies that would form the basis for adoption of sustainable landscape management practices, investments that will improve the capacity of participating Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) in data management, planning.
This is aimed at taking into cognizance the extent of degraded and eroded lands.
The planned integrated landscapes management practices and policies under the project component C, is to strengthen institutional capacity at the federal, state, local government and community levels to implement the project and sustainably manage the environment post-project completion.
The challenge which is land and water degradation across the country is caused by poor land use, deficiency in management practices and increasing climate vulnerabilities.
The focus was on policies that will turn challenges into opportunities and improve the use of existing capacities for the growth of the environment (infrastructure and institutional mechanisms).
The meeting was also focused on policies that promote synergy and integration of stakeholders with concrete action plans.
In addition, the project centred on facilitating appropriate policy intervention for sustainable management of the Hadejia-Nguru Wetlands; sustainable management of the surface and ground water resources of the Nigeria sector of Lake Chad Basin, supporting the department of Environmental Assessment in the Ministry of Environment to develop appropriate guidelines for sustainable mining of minerals in the ACReSAL Project area, amongst others.