LDN - LEVERAGING ON LAND BASED SKILLS ,KNOWLEDGE AND CAPACITY;FOR A GREATER CHANGE

The increasing disparity of production ability in the country, on knowledge, skill, creativity and innovation has continued to contribute to climate change impact and its associated crisis. Citizens become knowledge and skills handicapped, which could interpret their vulnerability and propensity to engage in acts that are not consistent with environmental sustainability.

An environmentally educated home, armed with relevant climate change mitigation and adaptation skills, are always conscious with their actions; and are innovation and sustainability driven.

Embedding the right environmental attitude and climate change impact consciousness are innovative ways to spur action to drive the change well all long for.  For instance, some human-induced factors that degrade the land such as overgrazing, mono-cropping, over - ploughing, bush burning and over-cultivation, among others are as a result of ignorance of poor rural smallholder farmers and lack of capacity to effectively manage their nature's( land ) given resources.

A rural community in Mbano area of Imo State, Nigeria, threatened by the gully erosion.

A degraded landscape can say to the one that is barren and dwindled carrying capacity to cater for those whose lives and livelihoods are dependent on land.

The overuse of the natural resource ( land) is one factor many rural dwellers are poor and vulnerable to climate change impact.

Talking about the rural economy, stagnation of net agricultural products has continued to jeopardize the income benefits of rural communities with a lack of alternative sustainable resources and basic economic; and climate-resilient infrastructure.

This again explains the persistence and exacerbation of poverty within the grassroots in Nigeria and Africa at large.

According to Nigeria's national land degradation neutrality baseline study from 2000 to 2010, shows that more than 463, 360 hectares(Ha) of forestland has been lost, including 344,570 hectares area converted to shrubs, grassland and sparsely vegetated areas, and 188,570 ha converted to cropland. Areas under bare land and other areas increased by 80 ha. For the land productivity dynamic, it was observed that 360,340ha of forestland had shown declining productivity while 178,620 ha of forestland showed early signs of declining. It was also noted that the average soil organic carbon stock for the country is 37 ton per hectare. This reveals the urgency in the need to adopt a more robust approach across scales and sectors, to implementing Nigeria's NAP on Drought Desertification and Land Degradation.

A Liberian youth sustainable agriculture technologist; and a RUWAI volunteer, who renders assistance for a school garden and smallholder farmers in his country, while promoting sustainable land management.

The role of awareness, education, skill and capacity building can not be overemphasized in implementing the various national targets; to avoid, minimize and reverse land degradation.  Such strategic skills that strengthen the resilience of rural communities and the vulnerable to improve land productivity; rehabilitate declining productivity; halt the conversion of forests to and wetlands to another land cover; increase forest cover and reduce the rate of soil sealing; would require massive participation of relevant stakeholders and vulnerable communities towards implementing LDN.

Unfortunately, the government has not done enough in this regard, as many citizens are yet to be aware of the LDN and its opportunities. Land Degradation Neutrality  is an interventionist project, and can not be achieved using the traditional government bureaucracy which has seen many brilliant initiatives performed below average.

 The UNCCD and its relevant implementing agencies should as a matter of necessity, strengthen the LDN implementation strategy, in order to empower CBOs, CSOs and NGOs for effective and innovative LDN mainstreaming, as mentioned are the SDGs.

The young Liberian farmer displaying some watermelons harvested from his garden.

Implementing LDN again would bring the desired landscapes transformation through the execution of sustainable land management practices while leveraging on various land business opportunities for the private sector. There are alternative investments in energy, water, agriculture, forestry, mining, infrastructure, trade and finance sectors, among others.  Regrettably in Nigeria, many states and local governments are not leveraging on LDN as a tool to create jobs for the teeming unemployed rural youth, fight poverty and enhance food security for citizens; through the various sustainable funding mechanisms.  An example is the  Ogun state - ILEDOTUN  multi-million dollar restoration project, to be implemented through a public-private partnership ( PPP) framework.


Achieving LDN by 2030 will also contribute to the country's Nationally Determined Contribution ( NDC) to climate change mitigation and adaptation. It is a smart way to accelerate Nigeria's ambitious target towards achieving emission reduction by 20%, by 2025, while restoring the basic ecosystem's essentials.


Uche Isieke is a rural community development consultant; and a member of the UN Nigeria's LDN  project National Technical Group. He is also a member of a Working Group on Access to Funding , for the African Initiative for Combating Desertification to Strengthen Resilience to Climate Change in the Sahel and the Horn of Africa- AI-CD.