Ogun sensitises residents on benefit of tree planting

The Ogun State Government has urged residents of the state to plant trees in their surroundings, saying aside their  importance of planting trees in the society aside economic value, they are also important for human survival.

Governor Ibikunle Amosun of Ogun state

The state government promised to support the campaign with 1.5 million seedlings, which would be spread across the nine forest reserves in the state.

The Commissioner for Forestry, Chief Kolawole Lawal spoke shortly after planting some tree seedlings as part of events commemorating the annual Forestry Day, tagged, “Forest and Water.”

Lawal said 2016 had been earmarked by the Ministry for massive tree planting in the State as government had started distribution of tree seedlings across the three Senatorial Districts of the state.

“For the government and the people of the state, year 2016 is a tree planting year, that is why we have stepped up the numbers of tree seedlings in our nursery sites from 700,000 to 1.5 million tree seedlings, so that we can have enough for distribution and planting in our forest regeneration exercise.” he said.

He explained that the distribution and planting exercise were expected to commence around June during the rainy season, urging the people of the state to key into the free tree seedling distribution that would be provided by state government.

It is very pertinent for the residents to plant trees even in their immediate environment to mitigate against climate change in the society, “The last man dies when the last tree dies.” he added.

It would be recalled that 200,000 tree seedlings had been earlier raised by the Ministry, but for the coming rainy season, it has to increase to 1.5 million to cut across the nine forest reserves in the state.