Climate change: Lagos plants 4.6 million trees

Governor Babatunde Fashola

In a bid to minimise the effects of climate change, the Lagos State Government has said it has planted 4.6 million trees across the state.

The Commissioner for the Environment, Mr. Tunji Bello, made the disclosure at the 2013 edition of the tree planting campaign held in Lagos on Sunday.

Bello, who was represented by the General Manager, Administration and Special Duties, Lagos Waste Management Authority, Mrs. Abimbola Jijoho-Ogun, said more trees were being planted daily.

“So far, Governor Babatunde Fashola’s government in six years has successfully planted not less than 4.6 million trees and more are still, as a matter of routine, being planted daily,” he said.

The tree planting exercise was initiated in 2008 with a goal of planting one million trees in 10 years. The 2013 tree planting exercise with the theme, ‘Green is peace’, took place simultaneously at several locations in the state.

According to Bello, tree planting has helped in furthering the administration’s green revolution campaign geared towards mitigating the challenges of global warming and climate change.

He said the state governor, in continuity of the campaign, had approved the establishment of Lagos State Parks and Gardens Agency to advance the cause of sustainable environment and further see to the improvement in the state’s environmental aesthetics through numerous landmark beautification and landscaping projects.

He added that school children in the state had also become veritable tools in the ongoing revolution on environmental engineering.

In a keynote address delivered on his behalf by the Managing Director, LAWMA, Mr. Ola Oresanya, Fashola said this year’s campaign was in recognition of the fact that the absence of enough green, especially trees, was a threat to the survival of all creatures that depended on oxygen.

Oresanya, in his own address, implored residents of the state to devise means of reducing carbon emission, adding that LAWMA was constructing its third transfer loading station to reduce refuse turn-around time.

At another ceremony commemorating the tree planting day, the Lagos State Environmental Protection Agency and the Nigerian Breweries Plc called on residents to be more committed to the campaign.

The General Manager, LASEPA, Mr. Adebola Shabi, who represented the governor, explained that the State House of Assembly had passed a law establishing the Parks and Gardens Commission, which he said was up and running, and that the agency would ensure that the gains of the past experiences were not reversed and that more mileage would be covered.

The Managing Director, Nigerian Breweries, Mr. Nicolaas Vervelde, in his key note address, said the organisation was delighted to partner the state government on the industrial tree planting day, adding that the campaign effectively aligned with the company’s ‘Brewing a Better Future’, a long term sustainability agenda of the conglomerate.

Vervelde explained that trees were vital for climate control, adding that under the sustainability agenda of the company, Nigerian Breweries had made commitment to continuously improve the environmental impact of its operations, empower the people and communities as well as positively impact the society.