Climate Change: Partners express satisfaction with locally-led adaptations in Nasarawa community

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By Linus Ogbu, Lafia

The African Activists for Climate Justice (ACCJ) project partners from Netherlands have expressed satisfaction with locally-led adaptations in Agunji Community, Nassarawa Eggon Local Government Area of Nasarawa State in combating impact of climate change.

They made this known when a delegation from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Netherlands, led by Marita Hutjes and Head of Programme Management Unit, African Activists for Climate Justice (AACJ), Benson Simba paid a field mission visit to the community.

Hutjes said she was excited to see a locally led actions being taken by the people of the community to fight the menace of climate change in their locality.

According to Hutjes, “I find it very excited to see what has been happening how people themselves, have started taken action just with the training that has been given to create the charcoal, and also make it as sources of revenue to make more money to improve their own living environment.

“I find it very impressive and also very inspiring and is really good to see.”

Hutjes said she was satisfied and happy with the way the funds donated for climate change projects in Nigeria have been utilised by ACCJ partners.

She said further that she had seen the way money was used in a very practical way to make life better and to adopt climate change that would make people happy.

Also speaking, Benson Simba, Head of Programme Management Unit of AACJ Project in Africa, said the project is focusing on the building the capacity of community to respond to effect of climate change in a very sustainable way.

Simba said that he has seen a clear African narrative standing out in the utilising the indigenous knowledge of the people in terms of being part of the solutions in the challenges of climate change.

Dr Kenneth Akpan, Coordinator AACJ Project in Nigeria, said the field mission visit from Netherlands, who were the partners and donors were in Agunji community was to assess what was on ground in the fight against climate change in Nasarawa state.

He explained that the visit was part of their efforts to monitor projects themselves, noting that the partners had expressed satisfaction with what they saw on ground, also hoping that the visit would bring more interventions.

Mrs Hellen Jonathan, while presenting a working document on how to adopt method to reduce cutting down of trees in their community, explained that the community had embarked on massive tree planting to tackle the menace of climate change.

She said they had adopted tree planting and briquette production method to reduce indiscriminate cutting down of trees so as to reduce deforestation thereby mitigating the menace of climate change.

She said that the Agunji community had also learned nursery establishment to have enough trees to plant in the next rainy season to combat climate change in their communities.

On her part, Justina Lawrence displayed how briquettes were been produced as source of fuel for cooking instead of cutting down trees in the name of making charcoal and as source of income to improve their livelihood.

The AACJ project – a consortium of five Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) — the Pan-African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA), Oxfam, Natural Justice, African Youth Commission and the African Women’s Development and Communication Network (FEMNET) are championing the fight against climate change in Africa.

AACJ project also aims to organise and mobilise women, youth and indigenous communities to advance their solutions to the climate crisis, to enjoy their rights to a healthy environment and self-determination.