Jeff Bezos hails Buhari’s commitment to restore degraded land

Jeff Bezos, American billionaire and founder of Amazon, says President Muhammadu Buhari’s ambition to restore four million hectares of degraded landscape in Nigeria is commendable.

Garba Shehu, senior special assistant to the president on media & publicity, released a statement to this effect on Tuesday.

Bezos joined Buhari, Emmanuel Macron, France President; Mohamed Ould Ghazouani, Mauritanian President; and Prince Charles at a COP26 side event themed ‘Accelerating land restoration in Africa, the case of the Great Green Wall (GGW) initiative’.

The statement quoted Bezos saying: ‘‘We are fortunate to have President Buhari of Nigeria with us today. Nigeria plays a critical role in the restoration movement and has pledged to restore 4 million hectares of degraded lands.

‘‘This kind of ambition coming from Africa’s largest economy underscores just how vital this issue is.’’

According to the statement, the Bezos Earth Fund has a $10 billion fund for projects fighting climate change and Nigeria is due to assume the leadership of conference of heads of state and government of the pan-African agency of the GGW.

On his part, President Buhari appealed to fellow leaders to continue to make concerted efforts at land restoration, especially in Africa.

He said: “I am optimistic that Africa’s ambition of restoring over 100 million hectares of degraded landscape for productive agriculture is achievable.

“Together we commit to the transformative process of restoring the African degraded landscape and ultimately the continent’s environment.”

He pledged Nigeria’s commitment to expanding the achievements of the GGW programme in Africa.