Green Care Global Initiative, an NGO, says it is collaborating with Bwari Area Council in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) to address land degradation and other environmental challenges.
Ms Mary Ishaya, the Chief Executive Officer of the NGO, said this in an interview on Saturday in Abuja.
Ishaya said that her organisation was ready to partner with the council to address harmful effects on the environment and its natural systems.
She said that the NGO would offer technical advice to environmental workers in the council on how to tackle land degradation.
Ishaya said that the organisation would also sensitise the public on harmful effects of improper waste disposal and deforestation.
“The health of the human populations is strongly influenced by the environment, and climate change, waste disposal and deforestation are all current environmental issues affecting our society.
“We are beginning to experience more desertification due to deforestation and other human activities, making climate change worse.
” Every year, we fell trees and do not replant them. Soon, the world’s environment will be bare and the devastating effects of climate change will spread.
“Our organisation will carry out advocacy to inform the public on the need to grow trees and nurture them for sustainability, and we hope to partner with the council to achieve this,” she said.
According to her, the Green Care Global Initiative tree planting campaign is already ongoing and is aimed at ensuring that over one million trees are planted in the area in the next three years.
She said that it the idea was to encourage afforestration, especially in villages within and around the council.
She said the organisation would also collaborate with traditional heads and schools within communities, where pupils and students would be encouraged to plant trees at the beginning of every school session.
Ishaya said that the organisation, which also engages in agriculture and sanitation activities would enlighten residents in various communities on hygiene.
“While advocating for sanitation, we have asked the council’s secretariat to provide designated areas for refuse collection so that people can go there and dump their wastes.
“We will also enlighten residents living in slums on the need to improve on their hygiene. You do not have to be rich to be clean or live in a clean environment,” she said.