ENVIROMENTAL STUDY TOUR TO BRAZIL ON CLIMATE CHANGE MITIGATION: WATERSHED MANAGEMENT, SOIL EROSION AND GULLY EROSION DECEMBER, 2014.

INTRODUCTION
Background and Justification: Nigeria faces severe problems of soil erosion- both sheet and gully erosion- due to both natural and human causes. Over 6,000km2 of land are affected by erosion and about 3,400km2 are highly exposed. In some areas of southern Nigeria, farmland degradation has caused yield reduction of between 30% and 90%, and as much as a 5% drag on agriculture GDP.
Erosion has a devastating effect on many peoples’ lives and destroys infrastructure essential for economic development and poverty alleviation. Gully erosion contributes to environmental problems and damage estimated at over $100 million annually (mostly in south- eastern Nigeria).
Southern Nigeria is affected by massive and expanding gully erosion, an advanced form of land degradation. There are an estimated 3,000 gullies which can be 10km long with multiple fingers spreading through the rural or urban landscape. In south- eastern states, gullies and areas exposed to erosion tripled in 30 years; the total areas affected by rill, sheet or gully erosion increased from about 1.33% (1,021km2) in 1976 to about 3.7% (2,820km2) in 2006.
Damaged to infrastructure includes severed roads and pipelines, collapsed buildings, and siltation of waterways, reservoirs and the port of Calabar. Losses to natural assets include loss of productive farmland and forest. Forest and farmland degradation compromise catchment functions. This process also compromises biodiversity important for livelihoods, and weakens natural buffers against climate and erosion risk. Many of the region’s land degradation hotspots are also the most densely populated areas, such as Anambra state, the self –proclaimed gully capital of the world and the most densely populated region in Africa. Ongoing attempts by States and Federal actors to stabilize or prevent gullies are at best partially or temporarily effective, for complex reasons.
Land degradation and environmental insecurity are also accelerating in the North, where intersecting hotspots feed upon one another to make livelihood very tenuous. High level of population growth and poverty rates, resource depletion, rainfall variability, recurrent droughts and floods, soil infertility and erosion, and deforestation compromise the efforts of the 80% of northern Nigerians who depend on land and water resources for their economic and physical security. Yet a growing human footprint coupled with inefficient resource management and poor reservoir maintenance are depleting these natural resources. This is occurring at a moment when average temperature has risen 1 degree and will rise another 1.5-3 degrees in the medium term, accompanied by more variable rainfall and uncertain response mechanisms (Banks, 2013)
This situation has upset the region’s ecological balance and therefore the degree to which its ecosystems can provide services such as food and fibre production, freshwater provision, and flood regulation. Nigeria’s woody savannah systems are under stress from clearing and reduced rainfall. Firewood bush depletion outstrips replenishments, and bush burning is commonplace. Key tree species can help to reduce livestock heat stress, to recharge water tables, to generate raw materials for marketing, to provide medicines, to strengthen soil structure to resist wind and water erosion, and to naturally fix nitrogen to cheaply fertilize crops. Good tree cover also attracts and retains biodiversity, in particular, diverse animals and pollinators.
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Thus, in response to the challenges of gully erosion and the emerging Land degradation and environmental insecurity, a request for assistance was made in 2010 by Mr. President to the World Bank Nigeria office, to support the country in addressing severe erosion and its impacts in south-eastern Nigeria. The Federal Ministry of Environment in concert with the World Bank and its partner agencies have designed the Nigeria Erosion and Watershed Management Project (NEWMAP) to address on a multi-dimensional scale the menace of gully erosion in the south east as well as land degradation in the North. The project (NEWMAP) is in line with the growth and resilience goals of Nigeria’s Vision 20:2020.
The Nigeria Erosion and Watershed Management Project (NEWMAP) development objective, aims to reduce vulnerability to soil erosion in targeted sub-catchments. This eight-(8) year innovative, multi-sectoral project will finance State-led interventions to prevent and reverse land degradation, initially focusing on gully erosion sites that threaten infrastructure and livelihoods in seven States: Abia, Anambra, Cross River, Ebonyi, Edo, Enugu and Imo. It will subsequently scale out to other states nationwide.
Integrated investments: Investments include a strategic combination of civil engineering, vegetative land management and other catchment protection measures, and community-led adaptive livelihood initiatives. The sustainability of these investments will be reinforced by strengthening institutions and information services across sectors and States, including support to improve governance, regulatory compliance, environmental monitoring, impact evaluation, catchment and land use planning, and to strengthen Nigeria’s capacity to promote and implement climate-resilient, low-carbon development.
Multi-sectoral agencies: NEWMAP involves many Federal and State Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), local governments, communities, and civil society. Effective implementation requires inter-ministerial and inter-state coordination, collaboration, and information sharing. Each component, sub-component and activity will be implemented through relevant Federal and State MDAs. The various MDAs include those responsible for planning, economy and finance, works, agriculture, water resources, forests, transport, power, emergency response, as well as those focused on climate and hydrological information or catchment/ basin regulation. Most of NEWMAP’s investments will be made at the State level, as States have primary responsibility for land management and land allocations.
The Federal Ministry of Environment (FME) is the lead implementing agency for NEWMAP. A Federal Project Management Unit (FPMU) headed by a Federal Coordinator hosted by FME is responsible for overall coordination. There is a State Project Management Unit (e.g. Ebonyi SPMU) in each participating State, headed by a State Coordinator and hosted by each State’s Ministry of Environment. The participating states must qualify to benefit from NEWMAP investment activities. All participating states will be eligible to participate in institutional capacity building and technical assistance activities, as these will contribute to meeting qualification criteria to participate in investment activities.