Republic of Nigeria

Ogun State, Federal Republic of Nigeria, the Ile Dotun project – 2016-2020

Context

Ile Dotun, in the Ogun State of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, was the first agro-ecological engineering project to be studied in the country for large-scale (108.000 ha) restoration of degraded lands, aiming to put into practice the catalytic effect of the United Nation “ODD 15.3” on Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) in terms of climate action, biodiversity, and food security. The project was supported by the Nigeria Federal Ministry of Environment and by the Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority – NSIA for the Nigerian public sector, and by the cement company Lafarge Africa and the agro-tech French group InVivo for the private sector.

The project, covering the 2 Ogun State forest reserves of Imeko and Aworo, was officially presented in Abuja in July 2018 during the visit of President Emmanuel Macron to his Nigerian counterpart Mohammadu Buhari.

From 2016 to 2018, various field missions were carried out by the LDN Advisory team and local relevant technical units in order to assess the agronomic potential and the design of a project proposal (Land Use Plan) based on 3 components: 

• 33% of natural restoration and conservation area
• 33% of community and small holders farming
• 33% of commercial tropical crops (cocoa, rubber, palm oil & cashew) agro-industry. 

Such project proposal was illustrative of the change of paradigm Nigeria wanted to implement, leaving the “Degrade / Abandon / Migrate” approach towards a “Restore / Sustain / Protect” approach.

The following Key Success Factors were identified by LDN Advisory in order to secure the project implementation and to de-risk the long term expected benefits:

The main features of the project proposal objectives were:

• 108,000 hectares of degraded landscape restored
• 200 million trees planted in 5 years
• 90,000 decent permanent green jobs created
• 37,5 million tons of CO2 eq progressively and permanently sequestrated in 20 years
• 3500 family farms of 10 hectares each consolidated in tree-based agriculture
• 30 times Increase in farmers income from 500$ to 15,000$ per year in 10 years
• 500 million US$ capex:
  • 105 M$ :Loans to farmers for greenhouses, land restoration and tree planting
  • 270 M$ : Commercial agroforestry plantations
  •   50 M$ : Access, Energy & social infrastructures
  •   60 M$: Natural Ecosystem restoration
  •   16 M$ : Operational infrastructure & satellite imagery (carbon measurement, traceability &  

               Certification)

In terms of governance, the following Public Private Partnership – PPP – approach was proposed:

• A “property” company, IDDC Assets, controlled by the Ogun State was to be created to manage the 50-years land lease contract granted by the state of Ogun to the Project management structure
• A “Management” company, IDDC Operations, was to be created to interface:
• The “regulatory” activities managed directly by IDDC operations to guaranty the governance and the professionalism,
• The Special Vehicle Companies – SPV’s – when it is sound to have a specific activity driven by market expertise

The Ile Dotun LDN transformative project, Federal Republic of Nigeria