Launch of the tree planting campaign

It gives me a great pleasure today to once again stand before the good people of Katsina State and present yet another opportunity that I believe will shape the future of our people now and the years ahead. I say this because the finite nature of land makes it a very valuable natural resource and therefore its use and management need to be carried out in a sustainable and rational manner.

Katsina State is located in the arid and semi-arid part of Nigeria which is facing challenges on land degradation in form of deforestation, loss of agricultural productive land and loss of bio-diversity and desertification being aggravated by climatic change conditions.

Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen, the tree planting campaign we are here to launch is a demonstration of the government commitment towards fighting against desert encroachment, prevent erosion and encouraging land reclamation. We intend to plant more than Four Million trees in Katsina state, in our houses, streets, markets, places of worships, farm lands, forest reserves and so on. Planting trees in our environment is necessary now more than ever, particularly with the apparent dangers of global warming arising from climate change. A part from distribution of seedlings, 100 Primary School Pupils were selected to benefit with a token of Five Thousand Naira (N5,000.00) each.

It is our resolve to engage youth particularly School age kids, youth volunteers and women farmers across communities with a view to help in checkmating the menace of indiscriminate felling of trees, climate change, soil erosion, land degradation as well as enhance productivity of agricultural land and decrease the rate of desertification.

We observed that the rate at which trees were being lumbered indiscriminately on a daily basis by our people will be a serious alteration in the ecosystem and ecology of these exposed communities which may eventually end as an inexplicable environmental disaster. These deforestation activities portend danger and needs to be countered with control strategies before it gets worse.

Our Policy in the Environment Sector of Katsina State has remained to ensure environmental sustainability through tree planting, flood and erosion control, increased resilience to climate change effects, waste management and pollution control.

I therefore urge each and everyone of you to plant trees in your various houses and other places so as to protect our environment from the impact of climate change. You will all recall the heatwave we experienced some months back which made the environment uncomfortable for us, and that was one of the effects of climate change. We should not allow the trend to continue and the only way to avert the reoccurrence or worsening of the heatwave is to endeavour to plant trees in our environment.

Finally, I wish all of you safe trip back to your respective destinations. Long live Katsina State and long live Federal Republic of Nigeria.