A STUDY ON THE REVIEW OF DROUGHT AND DESERTIFICATION AND THE ROLE OF AFFORESTATION IN PRESERVING THE DRY-LANDS OF NIGERIA

Drought and desertification are persistent to degradation of dry land ecosystems by variations in climate and human activities. It threatens the livelihoods of some of the poorest and most vulnerable populations on the planet and is largely caused by unsustainable use of scarce resources and poses one of the greatest environmental challenges today and constitutes a major barrier to meeting basic human needs in dry lands. It also affects biological productivity as well as the livelihoods of millions of people, making the prevention and mitigation of land degradation and desertification through forestry programme a major global challenge. This paper reviewed the concept of drought and desertification, as well as the successes of the afforestation programmes in preserving the Nigerian environment. The finding of this paper reveals that Nigeria is currently losing about 350,000 sq km of its land mass to desert condition and this process is advancing southwards at the rate of 0.6km a year and globally, about 1/3 of the earth’s land surface (4 billion hectares) is threatened by desertification, and over 250 million people are directly affected by desertification. Therefore, combating desertification and land degradation in the dry-lands of Nigeria has global implications. It can contribute to the minimization of global warming/climatic change and minimize the possible effects of de-vegetation, surface reflectivity and surface water transfers. It could also contribute significantly to the minimization of dust particles in the atmosphere that affects rain-forming mechanisms.