As Minister flags off 2020 tree planting
By Tanimu Muhammad
Abuja
Minister of State, Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Dr. Ramatu Tijjani Aliyu, has revealed the administration’s plan to invest in solar street lights to illuminate streets in the satellite towns of the territory.
The Minister, who stated this at the official flag-off of 2020 Tree Planting campaign in Karshi, Abuja Municipal Area Council, also stressed that the FCT Administration was working on other innovative solutions capable of earning carbon credits with which to spur development in the satellite towns.
Aliyu, said Tree Planting campaign was an annual global event meant to create awareness amongst citizens on the need to sustainably manage forests for the purpose of meeting the developmental needs of the present generation without compromising the opportunity of future generations to manage theirs.
To this end, she said the administration was working on a number of policy instruments to enhance the protection of the territory’s tree stock, adding that efforts are also being made to promote the wide adoption of climate-friendly practices across the nooks and crannies of the territory.
Speaking on this year’s theme “Forests and Biodiversity: Too Precious to Lose”, the minister noted that this could not have been coined at a better time than now when all hands need to be on deck to ensure the attainment of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
According to her, “Goals 13 and 15 of the SDGs require all and sundry to take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts; protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, halt and reverse land degradation halt biodiversity loss”.
She, therefore, called on other relevant departments to, as a matter of urgency, join hands with the Satellite Towns Development Department (STDD) in the re-vegetation of all open spaces, degraded hill tops and hill slopes, reclaim old burrow-pit as well as rivers and flood-prone areas to prevent and mitigate adverse environmental consequences in the satellite towns of the territory.
The minister further said that the STDD has earmarked 48,000 assorted indigenous tree species to be planted in the six Area Councils and 20,000 to be donated to foreign Embassies/High Commissions, FCT Public and Private Schools, religious bodies among others.
Speaking earlier, the Ag. Coordinator of FCT Satellite Towns Development Department, Engr. Felix Nwankwo, identified the environment as an asset to the present and future generations, hence the need for its sustainable management, noting that incidences of ecological and environmental disasters ravaging the entire globe are the direct consequences of man-made and natural factors.
Nwankwo, affirmed that trees in an environment are known to enhance the supply of oxygen to the atmosphere which serves as immunity booster to citizens thereby reducing the expected susceptibility to COVID-19 fatalities.