Ondo government advocate tree planting to halt climate change

To further reduce the effect of climate, Ondo State government has urged all residents to cultivate the habit of planting trees in their homes.The Commissioner for Natural Resources, Alhaji Rasheed Badmus, stated this while declaring open the training workshop on “National Forest Inventory Techniques and Data Collection” in Akure. 

The five-day training workshop was jointly organized by Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO-UN) and the World Bank’s Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF) towards ensuring an end to deforestation.

Badmus lamented the visible climatic change as a result of deforestation, saying the need for proper management of forests in the state and country should be encouraged.

“The way forests are being managed has strong ties with climate change. Deforestation and forest degradation through agricultural expansion, conversion of land and infrastructure development account for about 20per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions.

“Thus, as consensus grows on the serious impacts of global climate change, the role of forest in carbon storage is increasingly being acknowledged. Given the crucial role played by forest, gradual decrease of deforestation is seen as a practical approach to mitigate climate change,” he said.He noted that state government had expended appreciable resources to the development of the forestry sub-sector, adding that forestry is the bedrock for economic survival and development.

The Commissioner assured that the state would continue to support the efforts of World Bank, FAO at expanding REDD+Readiness activities, saying Forest Reference Emission Levels (FRELS) and National Forest Monitoring Systems (NFMS) are huge successes.Badmus further maintained that ban had been placed on logging activities in Ose River Park and Akure Forest reserves to enable the conservation and sustainable management of the forests.

“The state government has entered into partnership with Wewood Company and West Africa Plantation Limited to plant over 33,000 hectares with gmelina, teak and some indigenous species. 

“This project has commenced and planting of the plantation is progressing. This project would employ at least 1000 jobless youths,” he said, listing other measures taken to conserve the forests.While the National Coordinator of REDD+ Programme, Moses Ama, said the workshop was put together in order to have a National Forestry Inventory in the country.

Ama stated that two states of the federation, Ondo and Nassarawa, were selected out of the nine states that applied for the programme as a result of their compliance with the procedures.