Rakiya A.Muhammad
For Go Green initiators, it is a shared goal of boosting climate adaptation and disaster risk reduction in the face of a growing climate change impact on the environment, society and economy.
Eco Africa Climate Change Foundation, Shehu Maikoli Foundation and the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) Sokoto Council are championing the Go Green Project with the catchphrase ‘plant to save lives.’
“This program has among its components issues that address health, water and sanitation, environment awareness, sustainable alternative energy source, tree planting with particular emphasis to multipurpose trees and species especially economic trees for nutrition in climate change vulnerable areas,” revealed NUJ Sokoto chair Dalhatu Abdullahi Safiyal Magori.
Magori was speaking at the signing of the project’s Memorandum of Understanding in Sokoto State, Northwest Nigeria.
He said the recent Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, which warned about keeping global temperature from rising by over 1.5 degrees centigrade, has reinforced the need for such an initiative.
“Promoting the development of forest products through community enterprises can help improve the living conditions of the rural population; promote food security and conserve natural resources,” he observed.
“The project will establish a tree planting and distribution project. It will generate employment and promote the development of forest products through village enterprises. It can help improve the living conditions of the rural population.”
He disclosed they embarked on tree planting, given its contributions to man and his environment through providing oxygen, climate change resilience, soil and water conservation, wildlife support and carbon sequestration.
“Similarly, the benefits of tree planting are significant to the economy as it reduces the cost of managing the problems,” he said.
“The cost of tree planting is low compared to many other mitigation options. For instance, the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) stated that mitigation costs through forestry could be quite modest (US$0.1-US$20) per metric ton of carbon dioxide) in some tropical developing countries like Nigeria.”
Also commenting, Professor Abubakar Bello Gwaram of the Department of Forestry and Environment. Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto, pointed out:” We have a dire need to strengthen the individual and collective economy; trees have promise for this.”
“It is a veritable option that can strengthen our economy. If you notice, we have what we call a brown environment. Brown environments are very disastrous; the effort of this project is timely to address this brown environment and to convert it to a green environment.”
Prof. Gwaram urged effective strategies to achieve the Go-Green objectives. “Distribution of seedlings to schools’ churches and others is an important step towards achieving the project’s target because when communities are involved in planting trees, it is more promising than government.”
An environmentalist and board member National Agency for Great Green Wall, Dr Ayuba Dan Asabe, called on governments to commit resources to alternatives to check the illegal logging of trees.
“We have the solar energy and wind. If we can use solar and wind energies, it would drastically reduce the so-called fossil fuels and control climate change,” he noted.
“And then we would have very good vegetation cover, crops everywhere. It would help improve soil fertility virtually everywhere, and there would be more productivity.”
Chair, Maikoli Foundation, Hon. Altine Shehu Kajiji expressed its commitment to the project. “We at the Maikoli Foundation would do everything possible to ensure this partnership succeeds,” he declared.
“We have an intention of going into many things that can bring development into the lives of our people.”
Project Manager and Eco Africa Climate Change Foundation representative Aliyu Abubakar Shehu urged partners to ensure the sustainability of the collaboration.
“Climate change is a reality and fighting climate change requires massive effort. There are many gaps we need to fill, and those are social gaps.”
Shehu noted that many vulnerable to climate change’s impact are unaware of ways to tackle it, such as tree planting. He stressed the need to strengthen efforts to educate people about environmental problems and ways to tackle them.
