Bauchi To Host North-East Zonal Ecofair

The Ecological Fund
Office (EFO) in the Presidency has chosen Bauchi State for the hosting of the North East Zonal Ecofair, an official has said.
The ecofair is a platform to discuss unique ecological challenges facing each zone of the country.
Deputy Director Press in the office, Mr Tolu Makinde, told our source that the objective of the forum is to bring together major stakeholders in the environment sector to chart a course on how to address ecological problems in the host region.
Makinde said that the 2013 forum for the North East could not hold due to the security challenges in the area.
Consequently, the third forum would now hold in Bauchi in March while the one for the South-South earlier scheduled for Akwa Ibom in the first quarter of this year, would now hold at a date yet to be disclosed.
The deputy director said the North East Ecofair would review the problem of desertification in the Sahel region.
“It would even give stakeholders and host communities the opportunity to build more synergies in addressing ecological challenges in the region.
“The fair will bring together the academia, states, ministries of environment within the region, private sector in related fields and even the traditional rulers.
“This would assist people, especially rural dwellers, on how to maximise their potential rather than distorting biodiversity, especially as regards felling trees for charcoal production.
According to him, cooking stoves will also be exhibited as alternative sources of cooking energy for the people.
He said that the inclusion of all stakeholders in the formulation and implementation of ecological projects from their design to completion stages was part of recommendations from the fair.
The director also called on states and local governments to build ecological structures that people could identify with.
He advised that such structures should be demarcated as ‘ecological projects’ in order to reduce unprecedented request for intervention from the fund.