Sanneh stated this in a remark, yesterday, at the opening of a three-day Regional Validation Workshop of the Lake Chad Basin Revised Strategic Action Programme (LCB-SAP) in Abuja.

According to Sanneh, the current level of environmental degradation in the LCB calls for combined efforts for the region to regain its former position.

He said studies and analyses had shown that the survival of the LCB faces multiple threats ranging from weak approach to sustainable development and rational exploitation of nature, among others.

According to him, increased demographic pressure on natural resources with low level of technical knowledge on sustainable exploitation of resources is also among those factors affecting LCB development.

“Faced with this situation and to create environmental conditions of prosperity, stability and equity, the LCB was endowed, for the first time, with Strategic Action Plan in 2008 on the basis of a Trans-boundary Diagnostic Analysis (TDA) conducted in 2005 under the “Project for Reversing Land and Water Degradation Trends In the Lake Chad Basin Ecosystem,” he said.

UNDP offices in the Lake Chad Basin Commission (LCBC) member states have, therefore, promised to support efforts towards implementation of sustainable environmental protection and biodiversity conservation policy.

Sanneh added: “The current level of environmental degradation in the LCB demands that we combine efforts, without sparing any energy, to enable the region regain its former situation, and states to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, as well as their national environmental protection and development objectives.

“I can assure you that UNDP offices in the LCBC member states will be available to support efforts of national governments in implementation of sustainable environmental protection, and of biodiversity conservation policies to build resilience of communities, including displaced persons and refugees, who are victims of violent extremist movements.”

The Executive Secretary of LCBC, Amb. Maman Nuhu, said the workshop had become important due to recent changes in hydro-climatic and ecological conditions, the fragile security situation in the region, the development and adoption of the Lake Chad Basin Water Charter (2012) and the adoption of the Regional Stabilisation Strategy (2018). It has, therefore, become imperative to update the 2005 TDA to take account of the current realities in the Basin.