ACReSAL to impact 3.4m direct beneficiaries in North – Coordinator

Abdulhamid Umar, the National Project Coordinator of the Agro-Climatic Resilience in Semi-Arid Landscapes (ACReSAL), says the project is set to impact 3.4 million direct beneficiaries across the 19 Northern states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), among which 1.6 million are women.

He made this known during a stakeholders engagement for the development of strategic catchment management on Riparian and Wetland zones of northern Nigeria holding in Kano.

Represented by the Kano project coordinator, Dr Dahir Muhammad Hashim, he said the Strategic Catchment Management Plans (SCMPs) represents a bold and integrated approach to managing catchments.

“These plans are central to addressing the socio-economic and environmental challenges that our respective states face. They provide a framework for sustainable land and water management, helping us identify priority areas and actions that will enhance resource allocation and overall impact.

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“These 20 strategic catchments are delineated from Nigeria’s Hydrological Areas (HAs) numbered HA 1 to HA8. It may interest you to know that ACRESAL States cover majorly 5 of the 8 hydrological Areas (HA 1-4, and 8) however, the remaining 3 Hydrological areas, (HA 5,6 and 7) still have slight touches on ACRESAL States hence the ultimate goal of ACRESAL’s Strategic Catchment Plan is to strengthen the entire country’s long-term enabling environment for integrated climate-resilient landscape management.

“ACRESAL also takes as indispensable, one of the critical components of catchment management planning which is stakeholder engagement. Guided by the use of evidence-based scientific justifications, the beneficiaries are the determinants of what, where, and when activities are located hence the scheduling of this engagement workshop.

“I must mention that this is the first time the Nigerian Government is developing a catchment management plan of this magnitude and this assistance is being received with the guidance of the World Bank through the International Development Association (IDA).

“It is imperative to highlight that the Strategic Catchment Management Plan will facilitate ACRESAL to meet her Project Development Objective (PDO) and sustainably restore 1 million hectares of degraded land, making them cultivable, habitable, and usable for any other purpose be it commercial, domestic or otherwise. ACRESAL also seeks to impact 3.4 million direct beneficiaries out of which 1.68 million which forms 49.41 per cent will be women.

Daily Trust gathered that the catchment Management plans will enable the integration of social and economic needs with natural ecosystems and the long-term use of natural resources.

It will elaborately and comprehensively bring out the structures and mechanisms for environmental cooperation and coordination as well as the development of social commitment and cohesion.

It also focuses on interacting with strategic stakeholders in the Ngada West Chad, Yedseram-East Chad, Hadejia, and Katagun K-Gana catchments covering Borno, Yobe, Jigawa, Bauchi and Kano States.