The dry belt of Nigeria lies within the sudano-sahelian savannah of West Africa with the most sensitive and delicately balanced ecological systems in the world. With the increased pressure of de-sertification, prolonged drought and human activities, the need for intervention for the sustainable land use involves maximizing the net benefits of economic development subject to maintaining or enhancing the services and quality of natural resources overtime. In the sahel of west Africa, the issue is not that of eco- nomics of profitability but rather that of maintaining self sufficiency in food production and survival. The paper presents a synopsis of interventions by government, non-governmental organizations and international agencies. Among the interventions for sustainable land use of Nigeria's dry belts are: afforestation programme, seedling production project, forest reserve development, forest shelterbelt project fuelwood poles and small timber supply project, rural tree planting programme, village woodlot scheme, tannin industrial project, gum Arabic production project and protective plantation of water catchment and dam areas. Others are land reclamation and road side planting, adaptive forest research, second forestry programme, urban forestry, fauna preservation protection and control projects. Others intervention activities are ECWA community based development, Northeast arid zone development programme, agricultural development project, hadejia-Ngure wetlands conservation projects, farm forestry, sand dune fixation, annual tree planting campaign, community awareness and mass mobilization, environmental education and training, and community fish pond. The lessons and limitations of these programmes and projects for sustainable land use in the semi arid and arid areas of Nigeria were explored in the paper.
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