Residents plant 300 trees for environmental sustainability

Residents of Victoria Garden City (VGC) have planted 300 trees in promotion of environmental sustainability and mitigation of climate change effects to mark its 30th anniversary.

The residents recently in Lagos fell some old trees and planted 300 trees to promote environmental sustainability in the estate.

Lola Bolarinwa, chairman of VGC Property Owners & Resident Association, said the estate residents planted the new trees to replace the old trees as an environmentally conscious community.

“VGC turned 30 on Nov. 16, 2024 as a community we are very big on greenery. We pride ourselves on a paradise by the lagoon and that involves trees,” he said.

“All the trees in our estates are numbered, so we know the number of trees that we have. We have over 3,800 trees but this year, we had to cut down some because they were growing into other people’s houses and destroying the pavement and walkways,” he added.

“We are a very environmentally friendly community. We pride ourselves in our trees and greenery because they give us oxygen. They help us to stop the wind from destroying our houses. And of course, for climate change,” he said further.

On her part, Temitope Okunnu, the founder of FABE Foundation and Chairman of the ‘VGC at 30’ tree-planting committee said the exercise was aimed at protecting the greenery legacy of the estate.

“The VGC community has found it very important to come out and plant these trees, also knowing that there is a climate crisis, and ensuring that the trees that are going down are immediately replaced,” she noted.

“If not, then we would suffer more of the consequences of climate change. If we do not replant these trees, we will lose the essence of our community, as a garden city,” she added.

Also speaking, Peter Brittain, a member of the VGC Facility Maintenance Management Committee, described tree planting as the core of environmental sustainability.

“Tree planting is a part of the environment. My main driver for volunteering for the committee work is to help the environment and I am a big believer in that,” he said.

He added, “I think the idea of tree planting is a wonderful idea to increase the sustainability of this estate. So, tree planting is part of promoting environmental sustainability and we are mitigating climate change effects.”

Brittain stressed that residents of the community were committed to ensuring that the ambience of the estate was preserved.

Similarly, Achief Thaddeus, a member of the House of Representatives, representing Eti-Osa Federal Constituency at the 10th Assembly, expressed his joy at the promotion of the greenery legacy at the estate.

“We are glad to come together as a family and to continue the VGC’s greenery legacy. We are planting trees in commemoration of VGC at 30, and that is our way of maintaining the estate and mitigating climate change effects depleting the ozone layer,” he said.

Also, Joseph Sanusi, former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, noted that the tree-planting exercise was for the preservation of the community’s future generation.

“I am planting this tree in gratitude to God. It is so important to me that when I came to live in VGC, I do not think we can find any place more beautiful, more comfortable and secure than VGC,” he noted.

Sanusi noted that he enjoyed living in VGC because of the clean environment, emphasising the need for tree planting.

“We are still preserving the community by planting the tree for generations yet to come,” Sanusi said.

Another resident, Olajumoke Bakare, said she was planting the tree in memory of her late husband and to secure the greenery of the estate. “When the tree planting idea came up, I embraced it, because it is one of the ways by which you can immortalise a loved one for a long time.”