Third session of PAGGW concludes in Nouakchott

The summit was addressed by the Executive Secretary of the African Agency of the Great Green Wall, Abdalla Teah, who called on the member states to set up mechanisms for conducting activities and launching dialogues for the interest of the communities at the Great Green Wall region.
The Nigeria delegation to the summit was led by Ambassador Godwin O. Agama of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Other members of the delegation include Mr. Goni Ahmed, DG/NAGGW; Dr. Bukar Hassan, Federal Ministry of Environment; Mr. Sani M. Katsina, NAGGW;     Mal. Saminu Ado, NAGGW;     Mr. Musiliu A. Babatunde, NAGGW; Mrs. Bintu Mohammed Kolo, NAGGW;  Mr. Edward Kogbara, Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Mr. Okon, Nigerian Embassy in Senegal and Mr. Babatunde Fashiku, Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
During the summit’s technical session, two proposals were considered including the Trans-African Pipeline (TAP) proposed by University of Toronto.
The proposed project has the aim of providing sustainable clean water for the people and support agricultural activities within the GGW Corridor. A pipeline is to be laid from Atlantic Ocean in the West, a distance of 4000km and from Indian Ocean in the East, a distance of 4000km to transport seawater for desalinization and production of fresh clean water to support the implementation of the GGW. The project is to be at no cost to the GGW Member States.
The proposal was for the  Green Wall for Tarim Highway in the Taklimakan Desert from the Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Science. The presentation was based on Chinese experience in establishing a Green Wall of Trees to protect the Tarim Highway threatened by moving sands in Taklimakan desert and the need to explore the possibility of adapting similar experience and technology to establish the Great Green Wall in Africa.
Also discussed at the summit was the need for increase in statutory contribution of member states from 50 million to 75 million CFA from 2016 to enhance the operation of the PAGGW but the Council proposed to maintain the financial contribution by member states at the current level of 50 million CFA and encouraged member states to be up to date in their statutory contribution.
The Council of Ministers, after exhaustive consultation, proposed the renewal of the chairmanship of Mauritania for another term in recognition of the enormous efforts made by Mauritania, and to allow the consolidation of the PAGGW Headquarters established in 2013 in Nouakchott.
Other resolutions reached at the one-week meeting include the recruitment of a new Executive Secretary for the PAGGW for a term of three (3) years, renewable once, after the current Executive Secretary would have completed five years in office; maintaining the current level of statutory contribution of member states, pending the audit of the financial accounts of the Pan African Agency of the Great Green Wall; acceptance of Sudan’s proposal to implement a Carbon Bank which could play a great role in financing the Great Green Wall in the fight against poverty and climate change.
Sudan had earlier informed the summit of its desire to host a high-level training seminar for the experts of the Pan African Agency of the Great Green Wall and member states on the Carbon Bank proposal.
The concept as presented by Sudan according to Dr. Hassan Abdul Gadir Hilal, the Minister of Environment and Urban Development is for the establishment of the African Carbon Bank which is a united bank for Africa that will be related to enhancing efforts for soaking up carbon in the continent to curb the negative effects of the thermal emissions. It is presumed that the rich countries compensate the poor and developing ones in accordance with the international agreements and Kyoto conference and Durban conference of South Africa. The carbon trade is aimed at making plantations for soaking up the carbon and other gases that are emitted from the vast space and cause the ozone hole.