The Niger Government says it has begun the processes of repopulating its depleted 98 forest reserves in the state to protect the environment for human habitation.
Dr Lucky Barau, Permanent Secretary in the state Ministry for Environment and Forestry, disclosed this on Saturday while speaking with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Minna.
Barau noted that before now, the state had more than 100 forest reserves but had reduced to 98, owing to indiscriminate felling of unapproved trees by unlicensed persons for timber and fire wood.
He said that the remaining 98 forest reserves were not spared from the activities of deforestation, hence government policy to protect the forests by criminalising indiscriminate felling of trees.
The Permanent Secretary also said that government introduced reforestation, to repopulate the depleted reserves.
“The Niger State Government reached out to some international organizations, luckily the UN-Habitat and South Korea government intervened with a project for urban reforestation,” he said.
