Officials of the Federal Government and some states have held an interactive session in the Adamawa State capital, Yola, where they deliberated on moves to halt what they described as an alarming rate of deforestation across the country. At a two-day National Review Session on Climate Resilience in Nigeria, representatives of the Federal Ministry of Environment and Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development as well as representatives of similar ministries from Taraba, Kaduna and host Adamawa state agreed that deliberate actions were needed to address declining forest cover.

At the session, organised by European Union and Oxfam Nigeria, the federal and state government officials were joined by leaders of related civil society groups based in Taraba, Kaduna, Adamawa, Abuja and Lagos who jointly resolved that, while the Federal Government should intensify afforestation drive, the various state governments which own and control what remains of Nigeria’s forest cover, need to up their game.

A communique issued after the session at the weekend identified ignorance among Nigerians about climate change and the need for tree planting as a major challenge against tree planting efforts, in view of which the Federal Government, through its representatives, resolved to revive National Tree Planting Campaign, which includes the National Tree Planting Day.

According to the communique, Adamawa State, through its representatives, “resolved to work on the planting of one million trees annually.” The representative of the Federal Ministry of Environment, Mrs Olukoni Bosede, who is a Director in the Federal Department of Forestry, had told reporters earlier in the course of the two-day interactive session that the rate of deforestation in Nigeria is alarming.

Mr Olunide Ojo, the Resident and Private Sector Engagement Programme Manager of Oxfam Nigeria who also spoke to reporters in the course of the climate change and tree planting interactive session said the session was organised to recommit stakeholders to climate change impact reduction efforts.

He said the states participating in the workshop were brought together for peer review, to learn innovation from one another and then to connect with the Federal Government which designs the national policy on the subject matter.

Source: The Nation