The Kano State Government says it has begun planting one million tree seedlings to address the menace of climate change in the state.
The State’s Commissioner for Environment, Dr. Kabiru Ibrahim-Getso, made the disclosure at a press briefing on the 2021 tree planting campaign at the ministry’s conference room on Thursday, September 9, 2021 in Kano, the state capital.
The theme of this year tree-planting campaign, is “Mitigating climate change effects and achieving beautification in Kano state”.
The State Government planted two million tree seedlings in 2020 to control flood and desert encroachment.
According to him, last year, Kano State experienced extreme heat with maximum temperature of about 44 degrees celsius which attributed to inadequate trees thereby having an adverse effect on the environment.
“This will checkmate menace of indiscriminate feeling of tress, climate change, soil erosion, land degradation as well as enhance productivity of agricultural land and decrease the rare of desertification process.
“The campaign will last two weeks and has been divided into two phases.
“The first phase of the exercise will cover Bayero University Kano to Kabuga Road, Zaria Road and State Road while the second phase will be launched by the Governor of Kano State, Dr.Abdullahi Ganduje, at Yusuf Maitama Sule University main campus where 1,200 seedlings will be planted.
“The seedlings would be planted, shared across communities, state major roads, institutions such as churches, schools, hospitals, and mosques, among others,” he said.
Ibrahim-Getso said that the state government would implement environmental mitigation measures to safeguard the ecosystem and ensure its restoration of tree planting campaign from last year across the 44 local government areas in the state.
He further explained that the “2021 tree planting campaign like the previous one of 2020 is designed to sensitive stakeholders on the importance of tree planting in the general environment.
He added that the effort is in fulfilment of the pledge of federal government and 36 Nigerian Governors to plant 25 million tree to mitigate climate change.
“Some of the benefits of planting tress include: supply of oxygen, improve air quality by absorbing pollutant gases, slows water evaporation and to prevent water pollution, and provision of food, medicine through various fruits, among others.
“The 2021 tree planting campaign was deliberately designed to take off at this material time of rainy season to avert all encumberances associated with nursing seedlings particularly watering,” he said.
The Commissioner thanked the Federal Ministry of Environment for its support and other agencies of biodiversity conservation and environmental protection.
By Bosede Olufunmi
