Environmentalists have raised the alarm over high rate of deforestation in Nigeria, saying it would require to plant over 350 million trees annually to reverse the trend.
According to them, the need for re-afforestation in Nigeria has become imperative following the lost of between 350,000 to 400,000 hectares of forest every year with a lot of consequences for climate change and rising temperature levels.
Making the call, the Director-General, Nigeria Conservation Foundation(NCF), Dr Muhtari Aminu-Kano; Chairman, NCF, Chief Ede Dafinone, said the foundation was passionate about this, hence its major flagship project called ” Green Recovery Nigeria”, which entailed actual reforestation.
They said the project was targeted at restoring the forests Nigeria had lost since independence.
Worried by the precarious state of the natural world, concerned conservationists comprising renowned  environmentalist, Sir David Attenborough; President,Board of Trustees of NCF, Chief Izoma Philip Asiodu; NCF’s NEC Member, Mr. Desmond Majekodunmi; Minister of State for the Environment, represented by RasakAdekola; British Deputy High Commision to Nigeria, Ban Liewellyn Jones and Canadian Deputy High Commission in Nigeria, Teshome Nkrumah, called all stakeholders to rise to the occasion and save the earth from total collapse.
The conservationists spoke during the 20th Chief S.L. Edu Memorial Lecture in Lagos.
They said the call has become imperative going by the increasing cases of flooding, rising sea levels and deforestation threatening human survival and the earth.
The highlights of the event included the award of Edu PhD research grants to two PhD Students by Chevron Nigeria Ltd.
In a conversation with Attenborough, he predicted that the situation of rising flooding and sea water level would get worse if nothing is done to preserve nature.
“It’s going to get worse, not only in Lagos but London and Florida,” he said.
He pointed that Nigerians under-appreciated the mangrove, noting that a flourishing mangrove is valuable to the people and has potential to stop flooding.
According to him, there should be more mangroves in Nigeria because the nation depends on it to defend its coastal cities.
He noted that the United Nations (UN) Decade of Ecosystem Restoration is addressing the crisis of loss of nature, saying that humans really depended on natural world for breathing, food and other things.
“If we do not look at the natural world, we destroy ourselves because we depend on it. It’s the home of thousands of natural beings,” he said.
He also raised concerns over alarming population growth, saying, “One of the problems now is that half of the earth has cut off from the natural world. The world is transformed. There are more than three times people living in and they lived in cities. They don’t understand the natural world that if it breaks off all of us will suffer.”
He warned that the alarming population growth portends changes in the natural world, which would cause big disruption.
According to him, conservation is essential to address the issue, calling everyone, especially the youth to do something about it.
“We need to deal with the issue. There’s need for action by the government and the private sector. They need to join forces with NCF, “he said.
Ban Liewellyn Jones said the British government sees nature as fundamental to Nigeria, hence the need to conserve and help the people.
He enumerated many areas such as smart agriculture, renewable energies, preservation of wetlands, where the British government has intervened to promote nature in Nigeria.
However, he suggested that finance should be raised to fund climate change, sayingthe commission is working to ensure the condition for investment is improved and help in bringing finance to provide infrastructure, while combating flooding.
Teshome Nkrumah suggested the need to balance the need of the people with the need of nature.
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