Desert’s march fuels tensions

In the late 1990s, Alhaji Ahmad Idi could still count on his land to produce 40 big sacks of sorghum and another 20 full of groundnuts each year. But today, he works twice as hard to squeeze out yields half that size. “There isn’t enough rain and we have to dig deeper and deeper to find water,” said Idi, a farmer in Makoda village - about 70 kilometres north of the main northern city of Kano. And yet, to look at his land, he says, nothing seems to have changed: a few trees and shrubs, some soil - same as ever. “The effects of desertification are felt long before sand dunes start appearing,” explained Abdul-Azeez Abba, a local politician and member of the Fight Against Desert Encroachment (FADE). “It starts exactly as Idi describes it: productivity drops, the subsoil becomes sandy, rains diminish, temperatures rise and the water table drops.” Idi is far from being the only one who has noticed that something is amiss. Government statistics show that Nigeria loses 350,000 hectares of arable land per year. In the north of the country, 10 states have already been impacted and each year, the desert advances another 600 metres further south. Tens of thousands of farmers and their families have already been forced to move off land that has become barren, organisations in the affected areas report. These displaced people head south in search of jobs and land that does not exist, according to Festus Okoye of Human Rights Monitor (HRM) which is based in the northern city of Kaduna. But farmers are not the only ones feeling the pinch. The nomadic Fulani people are also heading ever further south in the hopes of finding better grazing areas for their herds. Growing tensions over scant resources All these movements have put a major strain on the fertile land of central Nigeria, which are more and more prized and less and less available. “There have always been tensions and conflicts between agricultural and pastoral practices but desertification has accentuated them,” said Yakubu Dalhat of Savanna Conservation Nigeria, an environmental defence group also based in Kaduna. The government had established routes for the nomads but the desert’s advance has done away with those, said HRM’s Okoye. “The pastoralists are now forced to move through cultivated land with their livestock, much to the chagrin of the farmers who are at a loss as to how to protect their crops,” he said. Violent confrontations are an increasingly common result of this clash of lifestyles. Last month, two park rangers were killed when they tried to stop herds from grazing in a protected area, SCN’s Dalhat said. Central Nigeria, which supplied much of the country’s income prior to the discovery of oil in the south, has fallen on hard times due to demographic pressures, most notably in urban areas where the majority of those pushed off their land end up. Moreover, the loss of arable land and pastures threatens the economy of the predominantly rural region and the national food supply. Once the desert has settled in, it is too late to act. Searching for solutions Newton Jibunoh, FADE’s founder, is something of an expert in the matter. The 67 year-old retired soil engineer first crossed the desert in 1965 returning from England after his studies. The experience marked him and influenced his career path. Nearly 35 years later, he decided to travel the same route coming from the opposite direction in order to see the extent of the desert’s advance. Shocked by what he observed, he felt compelled to act.

Even children get involved in the fight against desertification

Beyond the effects of erosion and demographic pressures, deforestation is a primary cause of desertification. Wood is an important source of fuel for poor northern populations who do not necessarily realise the consequences of cutting down trees, according to FADE. It is essential, therefore, to limit the extent of deforestation and to replant trees but such projects are impossible without the support of local communities. “We try to involve the populations by explaining the economic and environmental value of trees, of which they are often unaware,” said FADE’s Yusuf Ubaid. One FADE project consisted of a reforestation competition between schools in seven regions of the country’s north to create local ‘green belts’ consisting of trees that produce fruit or medicine or that help to fix the soil in place. Idi, the farmer from Makoda, has long been aware of the need to replant trees and only uses wood from his own land. “I always make sure before cutting down a tree, that I plant another one because trees cut the wind and stop the sand from covering my crops,” he said. For the time being, Idi and his neighbours are not thinking of moving. “And go where? All the land is taken,” he said, shrugging his shoulders resignedly and explaining that the only solution is to use more fertiliser and switch to more resistant crops. Critical mass lacking But despite the efforts of locals and NGOs, there is a general sense that the desert’s advance can only be stopped if Nigeria’s authorities start taking the threat more seriously. Despite treaties signed, agencies formed and policies articulated in the years leading up to the Nigerian government’s launch of a national action plan against desertification in 2001, there has been no tangible improvement, say observers on the ground. The government’s annual reforestation programmes have largely failed, they say, in the absence of sustained public awareness campaigns, the majority of the saplings die or are cut down. The 1,500 km green belt along the edge of the desert, promised in 2001, has never materialised. A report issued by the ministry of the environment shows that only 30,000 hectares were reforested in 2002, a mere tenth of the area claimed by the desert during the course of the year. “In terms of votes, the populations that are most affected by desertification may not be the most important ones,” said SCN’s Dalhat to explain the apparent lack of interest in a country where economic power is concentrated in the south. “With a few exceptions, the authorities, including at the state level, show little interest in this struggle.” While Idi’s farm is slowly turning to dust, there is less sense of urgency further south in Kaduna State where the direct effects of desertification are not yet being felt. “But if we don’t do anything, the desert will soon be in our backyard," said Dalhat. "When your neighbour’s house is burning, yours is also in danger.”