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The Great Green Wall for the Sahara and Sahel Initiative - National Strategic Action Plan is a national sectoral action plan of Nigeria. It applies to the period of 2012-2017. Its main goal is improving the well-being of the affected people and reducing their vulnerability to climate change through improved use of land and other natural resources for sustainable development and support to climate resilient infrastructure.The Action Plan, among others, treats the issue of food security. In this area, it provides for improvement of the management of land resources and their sustainable use. More specifically, the relevant programmes and activities will focus on identifying proven sustainable land management practices in the sub-region and up-scaling best practices that will contribute to sustainable ecosystem-based integrated land management in areas under threat of land degradation, for greater ecosystem stability, enhanced food security and improved rural livelihoods.The Action Plan also promotes improvement of critical infrastructure for enhanced and sustainable socio-economic development and environmental sustainability. In particular, it notes that investment in core physical infrastructure broadly comprising roads, transport systems, communications, energy and water supply, housing, environmental conservation structures, including parks and forestry can, among others, contribute significantly to sustainable development and management of natural resources in dryland areas of Nigeria, which contain vast resources, biodiversity and watersheds with potential for agriculture, fishing and energy generation.One of the objectives of the abovementioned goal of the Action Plan is to achieve sustainable management of natural resources and to make agriculture, in its broadest sense, the main lever for rural development, economic and social growth. Specifically, this will entail among others restoring the production capacity of existing forest plantations and establishment of additional ones, and development of good governance models of locally based sustainable forest management and promoting efficient management of water and land resources for the optimization of the benefits, mitigation of floods, and reduction of conflicts.Further, one of the policy pillars of the document focuses on the development of basic socio-economic infrastructures in the affected areas. For this, public sector investment in rural roads, health care facilities and educational institutions will be pursued in partnership with the private sector. Other project activities will focus on improving access to drinkable water, markets, recreational facilities, and electricity and communication services. Moreover, another policy pillar of the document encourages private sector operators to invest in the huge economic potentials of natural resources of the region to generate green jobs, ensure environmental sustainability and derive economic benefits through public-private partnership. Emphasis will be in the area of innovative mechanisms for private sector financing of sustainable land management, and biomass- based resources for renewable energy sources and environmental protection, including for example provision of land, and tax holiday.Lastly, one of the key objectives of the document is to fight desertification. To this end it provides for enabling policy, legal and institutional framework for sustainable land management and desertification control. Specifically, it promotes sustainable financing for desertification control focusing on issues of developing a strategic resource mobilization approach and putting in place a Desertification Control Fund that would be facilitated and used by all stakeholders, including the private sector, in the country to address key desertification and land degradation challenges, as well as exploring the opportunities for development while combating desertification. Moreover, the document also provides for Integrated Water Resources Management. This programme among others envisages sustainable water resources management for flood mitigation, groundwater improvement, pollution control and conflict reduction as well as water harvesting for afforestation and agricultural development. Finally, the Action Plan also targets at establishing early warning mechanisms. Specifically, it will promote creation of a center for drought prediction and early warning that forms part of regional and global networks and will establish Ecological and Environmental Observatory Centres that will compliment those in Niger Republic for the monitoring of land degradation or improvement.The action projects of the Action Plan are expected to be implemented through government organizations in active participation with the local communities. Consequently, the Federal, State and Local Governments of Nigeria, and their decentralized offices, are the principal partners in the implementation.
