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http://www.thetidenews.com/article.aspx?qrDate=04/30/2008&qrTitle=Green%20Wall%20Sahara%20programme%20%E2%80%98ll%20enhance%20biodiversity-official&qrColumn=ENVIRONMENT

Green Wall Sahara programme ‘ll enhance biodiversity-official

• Wednesday, Apr 30, 2008

The Green Wall Sahara programme will enhance biodiversity in the 11 states which suffer most from desert encroachment, a director in the Ministry of Environment has said. Nkem Ononiwu, Director Drought and Desertification, told our correspondent that the programme would influence climate change in that area as it was aimed at stopping desert encroachment.

Ononiwu identified the states, referred to as frontline states, as Kebbi, Sokoto, Kastina, Zamfara, Kano and Jigawa, Bauchi, Yobe, Bornu, Adamawa and Gombe.

He said: “The Green Wall Sahara programme is a modified shelter belt council initiated in 2001 by former President Olusegun Obasanjo to stop desert encroachment in the frontline states.

“It became imperative that the shelter belt be subsumed into the Green Wall Programme.”

According to him, the programme will cover a distance of 1,500 Km and would incorporate the establishment of human settlements, industries and tourism activities .

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