Yobe State Launches Massive Reforestation Effort: 3.4 Million Tree Seedlings to Combat Desertification
By Tada Juthan, Maiduguri
The Yobe state government is to raise 3,384,700 tree seedlings to combat desertification and environmental degradation in the state.
A dozen desert-affected local councils comprise Geidam, Bursari, Nguru, Bade, Yunusari, Yusufari, and Fune, while the other five included Nangere, Potiskum, Karasuwa, Jakusko, and Machina, a border community with Niger.
The desertification combat measures were unfolded over the weekend (Thursday) in Damaturu, while Governor Mai Mala Buni presented a N320.8 budget to the State House of Assembly.
He disclosed that “in our efforts to combat desertification and desert encroachment, erosion, pollution, and the general environmental degradation, the Ministry of Environment and its parastatals have been allocated funds to raise 3.4 million tree seedlings.”
According to him, the seedlings are to be transplanted in establishing 13 plantations.
He noted that this will enable the desert-affected local council areas to reclaim 3,077 acres of land.
Additionally, he said that the social sector of the economy, which has been allocated N108.5 billion, would be used to procure motor vehicles and working tools for the evacuation of drainages and waterways in urban centers.
Besides the drainage evacuations, he added that the motorized working tools be deployed for waste management and other sanitation activities in mitigating climate change.
