The Nigerian Conservation Foundation (NCF) has warned that the country faces the danger of becoming a desert as she continues to lose about a half-kilometre of its land mass annually to desert encroachment.

The Director-General of the NCF, Muktari Aminu-Kano stated this in Lagos on Sunday while speaking at the 2018 edition of the Green Ball Series with the theme: ‘Green Recovery Nigeria: Restoring Mangroves and Reclaiming the Desert’.

Aminu-Kano warned that with the rate mangroves were also being lost in the Niger Delta, urgent measures must be taken to curb deforestation and forest degradation to stop what he described as ugly consequences of climate change for the country.

While stressing the need to strengthen the Green Recovery Nigeria scheme which is aimed at retaining a significant proportion of Nigeria’s landmass under forest, the NCF boss called for sustained intensive awareness campaign among all tiers of government to change the practice of tree felling to tree planting.

Aminu-Kano said: “Green Recovery Nigeria is our push to bring the awareness that Nigeria is pathetically loosing 95 per cent of its forest cover and we have only five per cent left.

“350,000 hectares of land  is  being lost annually to desertification and the land lost is about is about half a kilometre every year.

“If you think you live in Lagos and it cannot reach you, it will only take some time. Imagine the annual movement of 0.6 kilometres.”