The University of Ibadan (UI)’s Environmental Health Students Association (EHSA), collaborating with the Forestry Research Institute of Nigeria (FRIN), has trained a group of secondary school students in Loyola College, Ibadan, on the mitigating and adaptive role of trees towards climate change, and has established a nursery for tree species that will supply seedlings for tree planting.
This was done as part of activities marking this year’s World Environment Health Day (WEHD), declared by the International Federation of Environmental Health (IFEH) to hold every September 26.
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The Head of the Department of Environmental Health, UI, Dr Oladapo Okare, staff and students of the department and FRIN officials met with Loyola students who were part of the Young Environmental Scouts (YES) club on Friday to officially inaugurate the 1000-seedlings-capacity nursery at the college.
Dr Okare said that the World Environmental Health Day celebration is an important event globally. He said the theme for 2109, ‘Climate Change Challenges, Time for Global Environmental Health to Act in Unison,’ centred around climate change. Therefore, the department embarked on the nursery project as a means to tackle climate change via tree planting.
Mr Adebayo Olaitan, Assistant Chief Forest Technologist, informed Ecoscope that FRIN supplied technical support for the project, including training the students on how to manage the nursery, and supplying the seeds and seedlings.
JentleEsuong, president of EHSA, said “The children have been taught how to raise the nursery. Some may build a career out of it. This is also an entrepreneurial skill that has been added to them. They have also learnt sustainability of the environment and how to control climate change. If people want to plant trees around here, they can reach out to the school; this will also be a source of revenue for the school.”
The Vice-principal, Loyola College and Head of Subject for Agriculture, Mr Sunday Oladipo, said that the school authorities would ensure that nursery is well managed and that membership of the YES club is sustained.
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