By Maduka Nweke
The federal government has said that desertification and land degradation have impacted the livelihoods of more than 40 million Nigerians and affected 43 per cent of the country’s landmass, approximately 923,000 square kilometers.
Speaking recently in Abuja at a National Dialogue themed “Restore the Land: Unlock the Opportunities, the Minister of Environment, organised by the Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development (CJID) under its Climate Change Project Mr. Balarabe Lawal, organised with support from the Federal Ministry of Environment noted that urgent measures are needed to save the environment. The dialogue was held to commemorate the 2025 World Desertification and Drought Day (WDD) and Sand and Dust Day.
Represented by the Ministry’s Permanent Secretary, Dr. Mahmud Kambari, the Minister described land degradation as a global crisis. He noted that dry land degradation had resulted in the loss of 24 billion tonnes of fertile soil globally, significantly reducing food production and threatening food security.
Citing the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), Lawal said that more than two million hectares of land were lost annually to desertification, land degradation, and drought. “In spite of this, it is estimated that 300 million hectares of land will be required to meet food demand by the year 2030,” he said. He explained that the 2025 WDD theme emphasised the importance of investing in sustainable land management practices to prevent and reverse land degradation.
The efforts, he said, also tackle broader challenges such as economic and food insecurity, water shortages, and climate change. Lawal stressed that achieving Nigeria’s socio-economic growth targets would not be possible without environmental protection and sustainable management of land and natural resources. He added that the government was prioritising environmental issues and had developed institutions, policies, action plans, programmes, and projects aimed at addressing land degradation, desertification, and related environmental threats.
Also speaking, Mrs. Regina Nwaneri, Director of the Department of Desertification, Land Degradation, and Drought Management, said Nigeria, as a party to the UNCCD, remained committed to combating desertification. However, she warned that current land restoration efforts were not at a scale sufficient to meet urgent national and global needs.
She noted that, in spite of UN projections that $1 billion was needed daily from 2025 to 2030 to combat land degradation, current investments in restoration efforts fell short of that goal. Nonetheless, she acknowledged the Nigerian government’s ongoing investments in land restoration and drought management.
Earlier, Mr. Ifeanyi Chukwudi, Senior Project Manager at CJID, stated that the centre was working with relevant ministries and stakeholders to promote scalable, policy-driven interventions. He added that CJID was also supporting research and the media in raising awareness of drought and desertification challenges. “We have engaged more than 500 journalists across Nigeria and the Lake Chad region to spotlight land issues and bring them to the forefront for policymaker attention,” Chukwudi said.
He called on the government to hold land users accountable, particularly organisations that extracted natural resources without approval, proper land assessments, or adherence to regulatory procedures.
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