Environment
THE Save Sahara Network, an NGO, has taken an afforestation campaign to secondary schools in Kwara. To this end, the group on Tuesday organized a workshop for secondary school students and teachers in Ilorin on the merits of tree planting, the establishment of school gardens, and environmental safety.
Dr. Fola Babalola, the Founder of the network, said that the training was aimed at combating desertification and save the environment.
Babalola, who is also a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Forestry Resources Management, University of Ilorin, said that the training is designed to encourage and enable schools to participate in environmental activities that will bring several benefits to their surroundings.
He said the exercise had become necessary because people globally now knew the role trees played in remediating the microclimate and mitigating climate change as well as value addition to property and other health benefits.
The don re-affirmed the Savannah Network’s commitment to creating a healthier and sustainable planet by giving support activities geared toward restoring and rehabilitating the degraded environment.
Babalola said the network share in the vision of creating a healthier and sustainable planet and therefore is on course to restoring and rehabilitating the marginal and degraded forestlands across our national landscape to the once lush vegetation cover.
He said the Savannah Network has organized series of workshops on planting trees to mitigate climate change, establish permanent school gardens for practical vegetable and fruit tree productions in many schools in the state.
“We have so far planted over 1,000 trees in 10 secondary schools and plans to carry out more tree planting exercise in more than 20 schools in the current phase of the project,” he said.
Babalola urged the management of the schools involved to give in their maximum support to enable the project to achieve the desired success.
He disclosed that any school that performs excellently at sustaining the trees and gardens in their custody would be rewarded by donations of classrooms and scholarships to outstanding students.
Mr Abraham Kola-Ojo, the Permanent Secretary, state Ministry of Environment and Forestry, said there is a large scale of deforestation in the society and this calls for great concern.
He said that any tree cut without replacement has a negative effect on the breathing capacity of not less than four persons, adding that the “Green School Initiative” project is a great achievement embarked upon by a patriot.
Mrs. Mary Adeosun, the Permanent Secretary of the state Ministry of Education and Human Capital Development, pledged the ministry’s support for the programme.
She urged schools to give the required support to the Savannah Network project at any time they visit schools, to achieve a healthy environment. (NAN)
Feb. 09, 2021 @ 13:22 GMT
Tags: NGO takes tree planting campaign to Kwara schools
