Desertification: Zulum flags off 1.2m trees planting in Borno

…state targets 10m trees by 2024

By Ayuba Maffi

Governor Babagana Umara Zulum of Borno State has flagged off the 2023 tree-planting campaign with 1.2m trees expected to be planted across the state.

The exercise, conducted at the premises of the State University Teaching Hospital in Borno, aims at curbing desertification and other environmental problems.

This year’s campaign in Borno State has the theme: “Trees for resettlement” which aligns with a broader theme of the United Nations: “Let’s green our city”.

Zulum, while delivering his address advocated the use of gas cookers and wood-efficient stoves as against the mass use of firewood from felling of trees.

Read also: Pernod Ricard Nigeria plant 3000 trees in drive for Nigeria’s biodiversity

“If tree felling is left unchecked, we may one day find that the whole of Borno State is a desert. We are all aware that we have lost more than 80 percent of our vegetation in the state to insurgency. All the trees around our village communities have been cleared for security reasons and some were cleared for firewood”, Zulum said.

The governor added that beyond Borno, “the issue of climate change and desert encroachment has been a great concern to the entire people of the northern states”, noting the urgent need “to arrest the menace of climate change in our state by planting trees”.

Meanwhile, Zulum has announced that the Borno State government was targeting the planting of 10 million trees in 2024.

The governor explained that of the 10 million trees, each of the 27 local governments will raise 200,000 trees to make up 5.4 million trees while the state government will raise about five million trees.

Zulum also directed the ministry of environment to dump its traditional tree-planting campaign and come up with an innovative result-based model. He also asked the ministry to come up with a working calendar that should be strictly adhered to.

The governor charged them to ensure seedlings were raised early by the ministry and the 27 local government areas so that tree planting could commence early in 2024.