Nenibarini Zabbey, project coordinator of the Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project (HYPREP), says Mangroves are the best carbon sequesters, which mitigates climate change.

Mr Zabbey spoke with journalists on Friday in Abuja while showcasing HYPREP’s efforts to combat climate change in the country.

According to him, the mangrove system is crucial in addressing climate change.

Mr Zabbey said, “Our mangrove restoration project is the world’s largest in an oil-degraded environment; we have environment vanguards provided with catalytic funds to plant mangrove seedlings.’’

He said the mangrove system of restoring spillage areas was the best globally and five times better than a tropical rainforest.

Mr Zabbey added, “HYPREP is committed to enhancing the capacity of the local people; we build the capacity of the local people, which we refer to as environment vanguards.”

Mr Zabbey said that the cleaning up of Ogoni land comprised 2000 hectares of both the medium-risk site and a complex, high-risk site oil-degraded area.

He said a pilot project of 560 hectares was underway, and the community was fully involved in planting more mangroves.

“As part of our broad livelihood programme at the moment, we have also trained no fewer than 5,000 youth and women because we want to create a sustainable livelihood for them.

“We are at the same time, restoring the environment in order to resuscitate the traditional livelihoods of the people which is basically fishing and farming,” he said.

(NAN)