Government, FAO, ECOWAS collaborate to validate Investment Plan to manage Nigeria Forest Ecosystem
6 December 2017, Abuja - The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations (UN), the Government of Nigeria (GoN) and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) have collaborated to validate strategies to reduce deforestation and forest degradation in Nigeria.
This was decided at a two-day National Forest Investment Plan (NFIP) validation workshop held in Abuja from the 5th to 6th December 2017. It was the 12th in the series of similar meetings hosted by the ECOWAS and respective member countries in the subregion this year, to improve and ratify draft strategic roadmaps with a view to achieving sustainable management of national and regional forest ecosystems in West Africa.
The Plan aims at strategically engaging stakeholders in the environment sector to implement interventions that would positively affect the conservation of biodiversity of global economic and environmental importance. It calls for all ECOWAS Member States to sustainably manage forest and wildlife resources, promote cooperation for enforcement of forest laws and regulations to fight illegal activities of logging, poaching and wildlife trafficking.
Important recommendations include identifying national actions, analyzing investment needs and the means for resource mobilization including establishing a clear roadmap for the effective implementation of the NFIP.
A shared commitment
According to the Nigerian Ministry of Environment, the implementation of the 5-year perspective plan will serve to strengthen the capacity of Nigerians to achieve the full objectives of the plan.
As for the FAO Representative to Nigeria and ECOWAS , Suffyan Koroma, he noted that FAO supported each of the 15 ECOWAS Countries to formulate a five-year plan for the National Forest Investment Plan and will continue its support to strengthening the capacity of each member state to operationalize the implementation.
Koroma emphasized that it is part of FAO’s collaborative efforts with federal and state Ministries of environment as well as other partners to support government initiative towards the attainment of the zero hunger goal and sustainable natural resource management. He recommended participants to diligently review and improve the draft plan to pave way for its effective implementation.
ECOWAS Director in charge of Environment, Johnson Boanuh, while commending the technical and financial support of FAO and other development partners for the preparation of the National Forest Investment Programs of the ECOWAS Member States, said the plan is to be used “as a tool for advocacy and resource mobilization for sustainable forest management at the country level”.
Boanuh expressed the hope that within a short time an in-depth analysis of the proposed priority actions will be carried out with a view to prioritizing national and transboundary actions for the sustainable management of forest ecosystems for the good governance of forest resources in the Federal Rep of Nigeria and in our sub-region as a whole.
The NFIP is an off-shot of the West African Forest Convergence Plan, prepared by the ECOWAS Commission in partnership with FAO and other subregional and international agencies. The Plan was adopted by the Ministers of Forestry and Wildlife of the 15 Member countries of the ECOWAS Commission in September 2013, after due consideration of the telling effect of climate change on the forest ecosystems and its consequence to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
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