Nigeria Tree Planting Exercises & the Great Green Wall Controversies!

Each Minute 2,400 Trees Are Cut Down, Between 15 to 18 million hectares of forest are destroyed each year, about the size of Belgium, according to Rainforest Ecology

According to the FAO, Nigeria has the world's highest deforestation rate of primary forests. It has lost more than half of its primary forest in the last five years. The causes cited are logging, subsistence agriculture, and the collection of fuelwood. Almost 90% of West Africa's rainforest has been destroyed.

“In 2010, Nigeria had 10.9 Mha of natural forest, extending over 12% of its land area. In 2022, it lost 105 kha of natural forest, equivalent to 69.7 Mt of CO? emissions. Explore interactive charts and maps that summarize key statistics about forests in Nigeria, According to Global Forest Watch

“From 2001 to 2021, Nigeria lost 1.14 million hectares of tree cover, equivalent to an 11% decrease in tree cover since 2000 and equal to 587, Reuter’s reports

The Acting director, Department of Forestry, Federal Ministry of Environment, Tiamiyu Oladele announced plans by the federal government of Nigeria to plant 30 million tree seedlings in 2020 to accelerate afforestation in the country.

In 2022, Pernord Ricard and the NCF planted 2000 trees across Nigeria. The tree planting process was overseen by the National Conservation Foundation [NCF] across the various locations, ensuring the trees are properly cared for and maintained to ensure growth.

In 2022, Benue, Rivers, Kogi, Borno, Kano and Bauchi states all picked tree planting in addition to erosion and flood control as sustainable methods of curbing flooding. Nigeria plans to plant 25 million trees to boost its carbon sink as part of efforts to implement the Paris climate change agreement.

The Nigerian government in November, 2022 launched a new tree-planting tagged: “Project 250k”.

The new initiative which was disclosed by the erstwhile Minister of Youth and Sport, Sunday Dare, said it targets the youth as part of efforts to get them involved in the country’s fight against the devastating impacts of climate change in Nigeria.

Mr Dare said this while making his remarks at an event titled: “Youth and Climate Change,” at the Nigerian pavilion in Egypt. The event is part of the activities marking the ongoing Conference of Parties in the North African country.

“We are launching a 250K project. This means we will be engaging 250,000 youths across the country to plant 250,000 trees and the initiative will ensure that youths are paid for every tree planted and nurtured over the years.” the minister said.

The One Student One Tree Project [OSOTP] is a collaborative partnership between T.R.E.E. Initiative and tertiary institutions in Nigeria.

The project was launched in collaboration with the Growing Green Initiatives domiciled at the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences, Ladoke Akintola University of Technology [LAUTECH], Ogbomoso, Oyo State, Southwest, Nigeria. The project was conceptualized to inspire undergraduates to creatively adopt the culture of conservation that will reverse the environmental degradation in our communities and to ensure that economic development and a better standard of living do not come at the expense of the environment.

T.R.E.E. Initiative have been able to set up a few self-help, long term afforestation and sustainable forest management programs to create national awareness on the need to mitigate the negative consequences of climate change caused by indiscriminate deforestation.

The primary focus here is to reach out to institutions, communities and smallholder farmer clusters across the country particularly in areas where deforestation has become a major concern as a result of the indiscriminate felling of trees and depletion of forest resources due to the booming business of charcoal production for domestic use, industrial use and for export.

LAUTECH has established an ambitious afforestation program which is the first of its kind by any University in Africa.

Over 1 million trees will be planted within the premise of LAUTECH under the OSOTP. It is expected that over the next 5 years, about 10 million tree seedlings will be raised by Growing Green Initiatives in the University which will be sold to farmers and investors venturing into commercial tree plantation.

“Nigeria plans to plant 25 million trees to boost its carbon sink as part of efforts to implement the Paris climate change agreement. Currently, Dobi Settlement, Gwagwalada in Abuja, Rice Mill Gboko in Benue, and Utu Layout Makurdi in Benue, among others, are some of the tree-planting locations in the country, according to the Women Environmental Programme

An organisation known as Global Giving is planting 5,000 trees in five Nigerian villages “to protect degraded environment, help protect habitat of endangered species and enhance livelihood of rural farmers.”

“Nigeria House of Representatives on August 30th, 2023 uncovered documents on how the National Agency for the Great Green Wall [NAGGW] allegedly spent a whopping sum of N81.2 billion naira on planting 21 million trees across 11 frontline states.

“The States are: Kebbi, Sokoto, Zamfara, Katsina, Kano, Jigawa, Bauchi, Gombe, Adamawa, Yobe and Borno. Worried by the inability of the Agency to substantiate most of the tree planting projects carried out so far, the lawmakers who spoke on their independent findings argued that 80 per cent of trees planted by the Agency did not survive.

“While responding to questions from the lawmakers, NAGGW Managing Director, Dr Yusuf Bukar, the Great Green Wall Act which was signed by Mr. President in 2015, enables the Agency to implement the Nigerian component of the programme as an initiative of the African Union being implemented in 11 Africa countries to coherently address the problem of land degradation, desertification, drought, climate change and livelihood of affected communities.

“He disclosed that the Agency planted one million trees in Borno, Yobe and other states, the sum of N2.4 billion naira was released in the first phase, and N7.3 billion naira was released in the second phase, respectively.

“The lawmakers who spoke during the investigative hearing into the ‘Utilization of ecological funds released to National Great Green Wall from 2015 to date’, expressed displeasure over the conflicting financial reports submitted by the Central Bank of Nigeria, Office of the Accountant General of the Federation and the Agency, queried some of the expenditures carried out during the period under review, according to Punch Newspaper

“The British High Commission and the Network of Incubators and Innovators in Nigeria [NINE] launched a tree-planting campaign in Lagos in February 2023 with a view to planting 100 trees in the state. The Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria [CBCN] is also planting 5.5 million trees over the next five years to mitigate the effects of climate change in the country.

“According to Executive Director of eHealth Africa, Ms Juliet Odogwu, the organisation was planting 200 trees in Abuja and 300 in Kano State. On the importance of tree planting, Ms Odogwu declared that, “Tree planting is one of the cheapest and most effective ways to contribute to making a cleaner planet, removing carbon dioxide from the environment and also beautifying our planet.

“Deputy Director, Parks and Recreation, Federal Capital Territory Authority [FCTA], Mr Okpe Charles, said in April 2022 that Nigeria must cultivate the habit of planting trees as part of efforts to mitigate climate change and address global warming, Dataphyte reports