The Ministry of Environment in collaboration with Global Initiative for Food Security and Ecosystem Preservation (GIFSEP) and Global Environmental Facilities (GEF) have donated 1,050 trees to schools in the FCT.
Mr Michael Adelusi, who represented the ministry to commemorate the 2021 World Earth Day on Thursday in Abuja, said the donation was to educate the students on the importance of tree planting.
The theme of the 2021 World Earth Day tagged: “Restore Our Earth’’.
The World Earth Day is celebrated every April 22 and the 2021 commemoration marks 50 years of the modern environmental movement.
The movement, which started in 1970, gave a voice to an emerging public consciousness about the state of the planet.
Adelusi said planting of trees was one of the very important areas the ministry was committed to by ensuring that trees were planted not only at schools but everywhere.
According to him, the ministry is supporting the programme by donating 50 trees, while the GIFSEP is providing 1,000 trees, making it 1,050 trees distributed to about 33 schools in the FCT.
“We have to go this day, catching the students young and I think the students are the best to start because they will nurture the trees very well and make sure they grow well.
“It is not only planting trees that matters, it also good to take care of the trees and ensure they are maintained to maturity.
“People thought the only way to get their earning is by cutting down trees and using it for their economic purposes, forgetting that as they are exploiting the trees from the ground and without replacing it, one day they will all finish.
“So, my advice is that the schools should make sure they nurture the trees to ensure that it will be useful to them,’’ he said.
Mr David Terungwa, the Executive Director, GIFSEP, said that the organisation in collaboration with GEF chose to celebrate the World Earth Day with various schools in the FCT through distributing and planting of trees in the schools.
Terungwa said the organisation with the GEF commenced the campaign in the tree planting in 2017, adding that the aim was to ensure all the schools in FCT were green and colourful.
“We need to catch the students young, we the older generation have failed in our responsibility to take care or look after our planet.
“The level of deforestation is very high and the importance of trees cannot be over emphasis, so we need to teach the young ones how to grow and nurture trees to provide fruits for them as part of the nutritional support.
“Trees provide shields and it will improve the air quality within the schools. We are also supporting the President Muhammadu Buhari, who pledged in 2020 to plant two million trees.
“So, our contribution to 1,000 trees is a reduction to the two million and if all schools in Nigeria are to plant trees the way we have done in the FCT schools, the quality of environment within those schools will improve.
“Planting of trees is not very expensive; the most important thing is to maintain it and the best people to maintain trees are the young ones.
“The students can take good care of the trees, they will nurture them and by the time they are graduating from the school, they will eat from the fruits of the trees they planted.’’
The executive director, however, called on all government agencies and other relevant stakeholders to inculcate the habit of tree planting.
Mrs Ibironke Olubamise, the National Coordinator, GEF, said that the organisation in collaboration with the GIFSEP had planted trees and initiated several other environmental programmes in more than 60 schools in the FCT.
Olubamise said that the purpose of initiating the programmes was to educate the students on the importance and benefits of maintaining the environment.
“We all know the importance of trees to man, there is no life without trees, so my advice to everybody is that they should plant trees. When you cut down trees, make sure it is replaced,’’ she said.
Mrs Anna Raas, the Deputy Head of Mission, Embassy of Sweden, said the mission would support the organisations to ensure that the project was sustained.
Hajiya Ralmatu Nusa, the Principal of Model Secondary School, FCT, speaking on behalf of other school authorities, thanked the organisations and the ministry for supporting the schools to ensure that the schools were protected.
Nusa said the school managements would ensure that the trees were nurtured and maintained adequately.
Miss Chioma Chukwuocha, a student of Government Secondary School, Nyaya, FCT, thanked the organisations and the ministry, adding that the effort would help the students to inculcate the habit of tree planting in the environment.