By George George Idowu
The Minister of State for Environment, Iziaq Salako, has pledged to plant and nurture 50 trees or more in 2024 before the year elapses.
He made this commitment in his New Year bulletin shared with news men, recently.
According to him, trees are “our greatest weapon” against greenhouse gases like carbon (iv) oxide (CO2) that are driving climate change and that trees are like the lungs of an ecosystem that most animals need to survive.
“I will personally plant and nurture at least 50 trees in 2024 and encourage my immediate family to do the same.
“Trees help combat erosion, purify the air, enhance biodiversity, provide food, sustain livelihoods, and contribute to public health,” he added.
Tree planting is one of the simplest and most effective ways of tackling and reducing the devastating impact of climate change caused by continuous greenhouse gas emissions.
As trees grow, they absorb (sequester) carbon dioxide (CO2)—a major greenhouse gas in the atmosphere. As a result of this, communities are encouraged to plant trees to help reduce the impacts of climate change in their local area and around the world.
Despite all these, Nigeria has continously failed to properly implement highly revered tree-planting initiatives that could have helped to boost climate resilience in the country amidst the lingering scourge of extreme weather events.
Over the past years, there have been repeated calls and significant moves by world leaders for massive tree planting (afforestation), nurturing and protection of existing forest covers amidst increasing deforestation threatening the world’s biodiversity
In fact, Nigeria governments alone had promised to plant 633 million hectares of trees to help save the planet from the devastating effects of climate change.
During the 26th edition of the United Nations Conference of the Parties (COP26) in 2021, more than 100 countries pledged to spend $19 billion of public and private funds to reverse forest loss. However, there seems to be no clarity in the implementation strategy to date.
Meanwhile, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says protecting and restoring the world’s forests is critical for limiting the global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
However many climate experts have raised concerns that political and business leaders are focusing too much on “restoring” rather than “protecting” existing tree species.