Page 34, THI SD AY, Vol. 16, No. 6049
Tuesd ay, Nove m ber 15, 2011
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'Community Efforts Ne~ded to Check Forest Degradation' C A GRIC I
Food lnd Agriculture Organl5011ion (FAO) program n1C called the Panicip.l tory Forest Managemem. which helps !ocal cOlOmun.ties in Mongolia protel:t their forcsl.'!. 'las said clIlllmunhy in\'Olvement is neetled (0 stop forest Jegr.JdatiOfl. Acal'l'ding \0 a statement Issued by FAO. the programme is sc:en as:, model for :egional action . ~ an Asia?3eific foresu)' "vent gets JrKkrn'lly in Beijin ~. FAO said the f roject hat.l !ffel;liu:ly ShJPped illegal log~ingant.lfore:stfire in 15 pilOl 1istriclS sinet" it began in 2007. md is se l 10 go natiolll'o'ide when the pilot pogramrnc :nds in Januury ::O 2. The ilgelk:y adtItd that with fuooing from the !O\·enunent of the Netherlands. the project was helping J\.'1 011gulians lcam techniques to pre5e"\-e the for~I resources th;u 3.lC crucial to thei r well-being. FAD said community invol\'cmcnt in tOr:!Slry man~gemenl was OI~ of the nlCth·xis being touted dt ring the 7II November Asia-Pacific rorestry Week c\Tnlli, which is orga.nised in pa't by FAD Juding thai the eve nt is lnchon:d around the 24th )ession of the Asia-Pacific ~restry 'Colmmission ;APFC), comp ris!d of 33 .:ountries in the rcg!on. J\. longolia hold5 roug hl y I BB (XX) square kilometres of forestland. o,,:cu]lying 12 per~"Cnl of the nation'! \'llStlandsrnpe_ Yet these frxest5 have been shrinking. due to greater Jcmand for timbo. r, human,ndu~ fires , m.ning, nnd :j\'erslockin g of callie. In the 19905, as m:lIIy as <KlO square ulometrcs of forest were dis-
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~ppearing
e't'eT)' ye.lf.
"Local peopl ~ for many yeass were ~ urrerillg because ;here \las a lot of illegal log~in g in their area;, a lot of :i~, str.mgers amling and Joing whatever th ~y wanted :0," said th e National "r the Coordinator Participatory Foree l ManageIl'ICnt Project ::'Iashzeveg TserendeJeg. "The ocals were oosically he lple:s. They oouldn ·t do IiTlYlhing," he
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Conununities are now discovering that they can, in fact, do something. Through the project. Forw User Groups rece i\'e trnining in forest assessme nt. mapping, management planning, fife prevention and marketing of f~1 products. l1ley then de\'Clop their ow n plans to put into ;x-tion. "\\'e ha\'e seen in many countries in the \"Iorld, and IlOI only in Mongolia. that in\'olving the- local population is key to stopping forest degradation. but ;1"5 also a major challenge." said FAD Chief Technical Advisa Dominique Reeb. BatJargal . a herder in I'o longolia. makes a living keeping a fcw hundro::l sheep.
THE PRESIDENCY LIiPLEMENTATlONCOMMmE[ OF Til EWH]T[ PAPERONTHE COJ LlflSSlONor INQUIRY INTO Til EAL I EN~TI ON OFFEDERAL GOVERNMENT LANDEDPROPERTY
goats IlI1d horses ill the district of Bugal. about 450 kilometres northwest of Ulaan Baaur. Until recently, he and his family could do linle wt watch as outsiders poached the resources of his valley. "We saw thaI things were going wrong when trees were logged illegally and strtamS and ri\'ers started to dry up," .said Ba0argal. "So the local people wanted 10 establish a forest user group:' II mo\'e thai Batjargal says has given community members a "feeling of ownership,In the three ) ears sil"lCe the gruu]l was founded. illegal logging and forest fin::s ha\·e essentially disappeared. In ar=s CO\'Cred by the project, new trees ~ taking root and herocrs say they are no longer deperKknt on oulliide forces 10 protcct their environment and h elihoocls,
Edo House, Opp. NAC,\ Headquarters. Central Business Disuicl, Abuja.. Tel: 09.6724664. 09-5235378, F3X; 09-5233347
Provide Grazing Reserves for Fulanis, FG Urged
T
he National President of All lhe Fulan i's Elite
Ahmed. has called on tl1C Federal Go\·emmentto provide grazing reserves for Fu!anis ocross the country This. be .said would go a long way in improving the nat ion 's econo my through Animal Husbandry and Agriculture. Ahmed made the call in lIorin, K ..... ara State, recently ..... hile speaking wi th newsmen. He also enjoined all tm of Government to c:smblish ~t eriltaI)' centres 10 c.:ontTOl animal disease, The President of the Congress said the FG was doing the country a disservice by abandoning the agricu ltural §CC!or. stressing that if the aninUll sector of agriculture was properly hamc::ssed. it would eam the COUnlT)' billion of dollars as foreign resen'C. Ahmed recalled that in the Northern Region during tile First Re]lublic, governme nt focused more attention on agriculture. w t lamented that it ....'a'5
e't'Clltually abandoned by
Reference to the earlier publications in some
From Hammed SlIiJtu ilJlltrit
Congress. Mallam Mogaji
National Newspapers on the 17" October, 20 II
subsequent administrntor. particulnrly the military. Answering another-question. the President of All the Fulani Elite Congress expressed c0ncern o\'er what be described as neglect of the FuJani's in the counuy and called on all licr5 of government to consider tile Fulani's in Political appointments as was the case during the administration of the former Go\·emor of the state. Senator Bukola Saraki. li e IlItrihuted tile problems in the cduollional sector as multirarious. adding that except stakeholders show oomnlJlmen! IlIld moni toring team made to carry out IlSSCSSmerll visits to schools, education wou ld continue to dwindle while the nation would continue 10 produce half-baked grad-
inviting the public to bid for some Federal Government houses in Lagos, the Presidential Implementation Committee of the White Paper on the Commission of Inquiry into the Alienati on of Federal Government Landed Property wi shes to infonn all interested bidders
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On the Boko Hanun Sect, Mallam Ahmed urged the FG to dialogue with the group hut ..... arned that the gO\'CfT1fTIeI\t should 1lC\~ mongage peace for- friendliness .
that the submission of bids has been extended to 22ru! November. 2011.
Food Security: llTA Raises Research Quality, Seeks More Partnerships
'The
intemat ion II institUle of Tropical }\griculture (ITTA) has mO''Ul to raise its research qUality and clso seek for more partnership '0 tackle food insecurity in the contiTI£JIl. lhe move was .Jl a bid to confront the emeJging chal!enges to food Stcw1ty and nvelihoods in tropical coonL"ies including elirr ate change lIId the degradatj(,n in soils I!1Id natural re5OUlt)!S, IITA's new OirtttorMr. Nlenlnya Genenll, :;an ginga. said increasing research quality, building pan_ nerships and enltaJl.:ing capac;:1CS to gen~mte in pact at the .lrm level would form the najar agend3 of tit( institute in '1C yeass ahead. S:m!!;nga :;aid ttis during a e1come adllte:SS tf the staff in 'JOOail. Oy<, Sra/c. ~d ing thllt
equally important for the instiMe to achie\'e its goal is its internal organisation Ac:cording to him, improving the quality of research on a continuous basis would eTUlb1e the institute retain and maintain its position as the lOp agricultural research-for-develop-ment (R40) olllanisation III Africa. He said in its 44 yC&l5 of existence, llTA led resean:h on the control of cassava mealywg (a cassava pest) thai generated benefits worth between S 15.6 and 517.8 billion based on 2004 estimates. He added that the instirute has over the years, developo:l se\-eral improved \'llrieties of CIIWpca, banana a.nd plantain, cassava. yam. soybean, and maile saying these varieties t!.I'C tr:msforminl! lhe Ikes of fa nr.el".i. enh:mcing \\ealth :Jnd
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3.00p.m.- at- the Abmadu Bello Hall of
guaranteeing food security =~IIY .tn sub-Saharan He pointed out that about 60 percent of the maize grown in West and Central Africa cornc:s from IITA v:uicties. Sanginga. emphasised the imponana: of partnen.hips and the need to help build the capacity of partners. He noted that the growing inlefdependence with partners was crucial in cnying ou t the instiwle's mission and vision of eradicating hunger and POI.'Cr'Y, ' Prior to this appointment, Sanginga who is now the seventh IITA director general, was the director of the Tropical Soil Biology and Fertility Institute of the Cenuo Intcmacional de Agricultur;l Tropical (TSBFClAD based in Nairobi. Kenya.
The bids shall be opened on the same day by
NICON Luxury. Garki.Abuja. 3. 'All bidders are in\lited to witllessthe opening of the bid, please..
Signed: Kola Adeyemi
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Presidential Implementation Committee
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