THE Federal Government has made available about N16 billion for the implementation of Great Green Wall (GGW) programme aimed at checking desertification in northern parts of the country, increasing the nation's forest cover, improving the livelihood of rural communities in the affected areas as well as contributing to global action against climate change. Meanwhile, President Goodluck Jonathan would on Tuesday next week flag off the implementation of the programme in Bachaka Village in Arewa Local Council of Kebbi State. Minister of Environment, Mrs. Laurentia Mallam, who disclosed this Tuesday in Abuja, said that the GGW programme is a three-year project which started in 2013, adding that President Jonathan has provided funds for the programme up to 2015 frame-work to the tune of about N16 billion. Mallam said that the event is an impact mitigation programme and a continental initiative of the African Union, which cuts across 11 countries of Nigeria, Niger, Chad, Burkina Faso, Senegal, Mauritinia, Somalia, Sudan, Djibouti, Ethiopia and Mali, adding that in Nigeria, the programme spans over 11 states of Sokoto, Zamfara, Kebbi, Katsina, Kano, Jigawa, Yobe, Bauchi, Gombe, Adamawa and Borno and entails provision of shelter belts measuring 15 kilometres wide and 1,500 kilometres long stretching from Kebbi to Borno. She said that other components of the programme include setting up of orchards, gardens and plantations of predominantly economic trees, saying that the programme would encourage the use of alternative sources of energy other than firewood, discouraging indiscriminate falling of trees, encouraging tree planting and sinking of boreholes to sustain the orchards, gardens, plantations and the livestock. According to the minister, the programme would create over 5,000 jobs, provide shelter cover and check soil erosion in the affected communities and create modern grazing areas. She said that even though it is a Federal Government programme, it would be community-driven to ensure sustainability.