Thread by @FMEnvng

MINISTERIAL PRESS BRIEFING ON THE ENVIRONMENT SECTOR AND PRIORITY AREAS OF THE FEDERAL MINISTRY OF ENVIRONMENT BY THE HON. MINISTER OF STATE @sharon_ikeazor AT THE NAF CONFERENCE CENTRE ABUJA

Protocols.
I warmly welcome you all to the Ministry of @FMEnvng Media Briefing on the environment sector, our ministerial mandates performances, and to update you on our priority areas of focus for the Ministry in 2022.

The vision statement of the Ministry of Environment is: “To be a nation that develops in harmony with her environment.”
And our mission is: “To ensure environmental protection, natural resources conservation, and sustainable development”

The mandate of the Ministry of @FMEnvng is to:
i. Secure a quality environment conducive for health and wellbeing of the citizens, fauna and flora
ii. Promote sustainable use of natural resources
iii. Promote research and development on issues that affect the environment

iv. Restore & maintain the ecosystem,ecological process and preserve biodiversity
v. Raise public awareness & promote understanding of linkages of the environment

vi. Cooperate/collaborate with relevant MDAs, the private sector, NGOs and international organizations on environmental matters.

Nigeria has been facing several environmental challenges from desertification in the North, to flooding and coastal erosion in the South, deforestation, land degradation, pollution, loss of biodiversity and adverse impacts of climate change.

All these environmental degradations are adversely affecting the lives and livelihood of our people. And under the mandate of the Ministry of @FMEnvng , we have been working with development partners, line ministries, MDAs, NGOs and CSOs, to address and ameliorate these problems

..through our policies, action plans and environmental regulations and projects.
Some established policies that have supported the implementation of the Ministry’s mandate amongst others are;
• National Policy on Environment 2017
• National policy on solid waste management 2020

• National Policy on Plastic waste management 2020
• National Forestry policy 2019
• National policy on climate change (revised 2021)
• National Biosafety Policy 2021
•National Action plan on gender and climate change 2020
•National Biosecurity policy and action plan 2022

In the area of Afforestation, the national afforestation programme under the green bond project has successfully forested 6,191,363 ha of land through the green bond project implemented by; Forest Research Institute of Nigeria (@FRINOFFICIAL ), National NAGGW @naggwnigeria ,

Department of Desertification, land degradation and drought Management, National Parks Service (@NigeriaParks ), NGOs, State Governments, Private planters and international stakeholders. In addition, a total of 6,550,056 seedlings, were raised,

distributed to state governments and institutions and planted by Forest Research Institute of Nigeria (@FRINOFFICIAL ), Federal Department of Forestry, Nigeria Conservation Foundation (@ncfnigeria ) and tree restoration and planting company in 2020

..under the forestry trust fund initiative
The most significant action taken towards playing our role in climate change mitigation and adaptation is the signing of the Climate change bill into law by Mr President, in November 2021.

In implementing our mandate, the Ministry will be focusing on the following priority areas;

OGONI CLEAN-UP #OgoniCleanUp
On the instance of the @NigeriaGov , @UNEP conducted an independent assessment of hydrocarbon pollution in Ogoniland, in 2006. The Environmental Assessment of Ogoniland UNEP report was submitted to Federal Government of Nigeria in 2011.

The cleanup of Ogoniland was flagged off by Nigerian President @MBuhari in June 2016. #OgoniCleanUp

The Governing Council and Board of Trustees of @HYPREPNigeria (for the management of Environmental Restoration Fund for Ogoniland) were inaugurated in August 2016 and the Project Coordinator’s office was established in 2017.
 #OgoniCleanUp

The Ministry is accelerating the remediation project, expanding on the livelihood program of the hydrocarbon impacted communities. #OgoniCleanUp

Preliminary remediation activities had commenced in early 2018, and work is at various stages of the remediation processes, with successes despite delays encountered.
#OgoniCleanUp

The Project implementation status is between 2019-2021 and covers three (3) core areas, which are contaminated soil remediation, sustainable livelihood programme and portable water supply.
 #OgoniCleanUp

1. In 2019 contracts for 21 lots were awarded for remediation, these covered 12 of the 65 listed sites in the UNEP report. These lots covered an area of 276 acres. #OgoniCleanUp

To date 18 of these lots have been completed and certified by NOSDRA. 3 of the lots are currently undergoing certification process and one lot is still undergoing remediation.

2. An additional 29 lots were awarded for remediation of 8 sites in February 2020. The area covered is 289 acres. Six of these sites have been completed and certified by NOSDRA while two outstanding sites at Bdere and Ogale are above 60% completion of which we are accelerating

3. As of January 2022 bidding for additional 37 hydrocarbon impacted sites is in progress. Total volume of contaminated soil to be remediated is 5,354,766 cubic meters over an area of about 314 acres.  
 #OgoniCleanUp