World Environment Day: Tree planting shouldn't just be ceremonial

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The Forestry Research Institute of Nigeria (FRIN) has marked this year’s World Environment Day (WED) with a renewed call for tree planting beyond ceremonial actions.

Professor Zacharia Yaduma, the Director-General of FRIN, spoke to Tribune Online after a seminar to mark the day was held at the Ibadan headquarters of the institute on Wednesday. It took place in collaboration with the Federal College of Forestry, Ibadan. This year’s celebration has the theme: ‘Land restoration, desertification and drought resilience.’

He said, “The anthropogenic activities that have degraded the land should stop. We should avoid illegal felling of trees. We should not encourage drought.”

He added that planting of trees should not only take place to mark days like WED. “The important thing that we are encouraging is to plant trees in your neighbourhood. It should be a continuous exercise. Trees are of so much benefit for the future,” the FRIN DG noted.

During the seminar, Dr Tayo Oyelowo, an associate professor at FRIN and a forest ecology and conservation expert, presented a paper titled “Desertification, drought and Land Restoration in Nigeria.”

He said that desertification could occur in any part of Nigeria, noting that desertification was not limited to the North. He added that desertification was negatively affecting food security. Dr Oyelowo, however, noted that Nigeria was blessed to have lands that could naturally regenerate.

He said Nigeria has the potential for ecological restoration naturally, adding that degraded land if left untouched will restore itself.

He echoed the DG’s stance that tree planting should not be merely ceremonial. He said part of the challenges of land restoration was that tree planting had become a political jamboree alongside low-level of awareness of the benefits of ecological restoration.

Dr Bridget Olawuyi of the Federal College of Forestry, Ibadan, in her paper titled “Sustaining the Beautiful Garden called Earth” noted that land degradation impacts negatively on water quality. She said land degradation could be reversed through organic and soil-friendly farming methods, protecting marine and coastal environments as well as restoration of freshwater ecosystems.

In the final presentation of the day, Professor Ismail Azeez of the Department of Social and Environmental Forestry, University of Ibadan, spoke on “Land Restoration, Drought Resilience and Amelioration of Desertification Using Sustainable Land Use Practice.”

He said, “We must look inward to indigenous methods practised in the past by our forefathers” to mitigate land degradation and promote sustainable land use.

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