The Global Legislators Organization for a Balanced Environment (GLOBE) project “GLOBE Legislators Advancing REDD+ and Natural Capital Governance Towards the Delivery of the 2030 Agenda,” has been launched in Nigeria.
The project, which is supported by the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) and Global Environment Facility (GEF) was launched at the National Assembly complex in Abuja, Nigeria, on November 20, 2019.
Declaring the project launched, the Speaker of Nigeria’s House of Representatives, His Excellency Rt. Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila thanked UNEP, GEF and GLOBE for the project, which he described as key in plugging the technical capacity and awareness creation gaps that Nigeria experiences in dealing with issues of protecting the environment and sustainable development, with a focus on the implementation of the Great Green Wall Initiative, the adoption of a national legislative framework for the implementation of REDD+, and the integration of environmental economic accounting as a tool for decision-making for the delivery of the nature-dependent SDGs.
Rt. Hon. Gbajabiamila stressed that the Nigeria Government is committed to supporting GLOBE and other international partners in attaining the goals of the project as the consequences of not doing so are dire.
Earlier, the Vice President (Africa) of GLOBE International and President of GLOBE Nigeria, Rt. Hon. Samuel Onuigbo, had stressed the need for Nigeria to take seriously the issues o Climate Change, sustainable development, and Natural Capital accounting. This, he said, is important, if the country is to check the ricocheting effects of climate change, such as robbery, kidnapping, farmers-herders clashes, terrorism and insurgency, etc.
According to him;
“It has been established that one of the drivers of the Boko Haram menace and the farmers-herders clashes in parts of Nigeria and West Africa are directly linked to the drying up of the Lake Chad and the encroachment of the desert into savannah vegetation. As desertification is ferociously racing down in the north, including Nigeria’s northern neighbours, the need to plant millions of trees and build a Great Green Wall from Adamawa, to Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Jigawa, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Sokoto, Yobe up to Zamfara state, became urgent and important. When people have their means of livelihood taken away from them either through drought, desertification, coastal erosion, or degradation through oil spillages without commensurate rehabilitation, crime becomes an option hence the rise in criminal activities such as robbery, kidnapping, militancy, insurgency, and more. All of these issues of course dovetail into a global problem of migration, diseases, farmers-herders clashes, insecurity and many more.”
Rt. Hon. Onuigbo used the opportunity to call on the Nigerian National Assembly to expedite action on the passage of the Climate Change Bill and ensure that assent is given by the President.
Highlight of the event was the reconvening of members of GLOBE Nigeria in the 9th National Assembly, by the Speaker, Rt. Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila.
