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FG gets council for forestry fund

By Cornelius Essen, Abuja
03 December 2018   |   4:02 am
To address the issues of funding reforestation and sustainable forest management, the Federal Government has established...

Minister of State for Environment, Ibrahim Jibril

To address the issues of funding reforestation and sustainable forest management, the Federal Government has established a governing council for the National Forestry Trust Fund (NFTF) .

Approved in 2017, the fund is expected to draw its take-off money from contributions from wood exporters, states counterpart funds, and Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) fines to meet the challenges of returning forest to its pristine state.

Minister of State for Environment, Ibrahim Jibril who inaugurated its Governing Council in Abuja said attempts to set it up did not materialise, and it led to Ondo, Cross River, and Kogi to establish theirs.

“It became obvious that state level funds would be inadequate to deal with myriad of problems plaguing the sector, which are not state specific, and no budgetary provision to meet them,” he added.

He also explained, “overall objective of NFTF is to carry out reforestation and sustainable management, such as degraded forest estates, reserves and production landscapes.

The governing council duties include monitoring fund ultilisation to ensure completion and post completion, maintenance of planting operations and other projects.

He charged the members to ensure that management of country’s forests become a veritable tool in not only addressing the challenge of climate change, but reduce its negative impacts.

On his part, the ministry’s Permanent Secretary, Leon Aliboh cited forest deforestation, land degradation, displacement of forest communities as well as opportunities for using forest resources as a means of guaranteeing inclusive and sustainable growth of economy.

The governing council members are; Dr. Shehu M.T. Ahmed (Chairman); State Commissioner in charge of forestry (Vice chairman); Nigerian Conservation Foundation (NCF) Director General, Dr. Mukhtari Aminu Kano, Comptroller I.S Onota.

Others include, Aro Moshood Abiodun,Joseph Odiase,Dr.Adeshola O.Adepoju, Ibrahim Umar Shamaki, Otunba Niyi Adebayo, Mohammed Danaro, Dr.Glori Ujor, while Adejo Andrew would serve as secretary.

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