Federal government has flagged off the 2026 national tree planting campaign in Kano and called on Nigerians to support the efforts to restore degraded landscapes and combat the growing threat of desertification and sandstorms across northern Nigeria.
The event, held at the headquarters of the National Agency for the Great Green Wall to commemorate the 2026 Great Green Wall Day, featured the inauguration of the National Steering Committee for the Scaling-Up Resilience in Africa’s Great Green Wall (SURAGGWA) Project and the formal handover of office accommodation following the agency’s relocation to Kano.
At the event, the minister of Environment, Balarabe Lawal, said the initiative reflected the federal government’s commitment to environmental restoration and climate resilience under President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda.
With the theme “The Green Shield: Restoring Landscapes to Silence the Sand and Dust Storms,” the minister described sand and dust storms as growing environmental threats to agriculture, biodiversity, infrastructure, and public health, stressing that restoring degraded land remains the most effective response.
Lawal urged governors of the 11 frontline Great Green Wall states, local governments, traditional rulers, schools, faith-based organisations, the private sector and communities to actively participate in the campaign.
He disclosed that the National Agency for the Great Green Wall had raised over 48 million indigenous and exotic tree seedlings, established more than 5,400 hectares of shelterbelts, and distributed over 10.8 million drought-resistant seedlings and 869,089 date palm seedlings to farmers.
He added that the agency had also supported rural communities with solar-powered irrigation pumps, boreholes, solar home systems and fuel-efficient cookstoves to improve livelihoods.
Governor Abba Yusuf, who was represented by the State Commissioner for Environment and Climate Change, Dr Dahiru Hashim, described the relocation of the agency’s headquarters to Kano as a strategic step towards strengthening the fight against desertification.
He said Kano had planted more than eight million trees in the last two years and restored over 50,000 hectares of degraded land through afforestation and ecosystem restoration programmes, while urging the Federal Government and development partners to prioritise the state in implementing the SURAGGWA project.
Also speaking, the Food and Agriculture Organisation Representative in Nigeria and ECOWAS, Hussein Gadain, said Nigeria was the largest beneficiary of the Green Climate Fund-backed SURAGGWA programme, which is expected to benefit more than 1.9 million people through landscape restoration, climate adaptation and livelihood support.
Earlier in his welcome address, Director-General of the National Agency for the Great Green Wall, Saleh Abubakar, reaffirmed the agency’s commitment to partnering with governments, development partners and communities to restore degraded landscapes and build climate-resilient communities.
