International organisations to support NGO on tree planting in rural communities
Clean-Up Nigeria (CUN), a non-governmental organisation (NGO), says that some international organisations have promised to provide fund for seeds to support tree planting in the country.
Mr Ene Owoh, National Coordinator of CUN, made this known during an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), on Thursday in Abuja.
Owoh listed the organisations as, International Council for Local Environmental Initiative, Suez Foundation France, Keep America Beautiful (USA), and DSZ German.
Owoh said that CUN would distribute the seeds mostly in rural communities across the country.
The coordinator said that the organisation was committed to increase public awareness on dangers of indiscriminate cutting down of trees and importance of tree planting in an environment.
He said the awareness would be in collaboration with relevant stakeholders, adding that the effort was aimed at addressing the environmental challenges as well as keeping the environment healthy.
“We are yet to receive the seeds funding but it is already captured as one of the partners funding projects for 2022 in Nigeria.
“The seeds funding and tree planting is to support Nigeria in addressing environmental challenges.
“The NGO will ensure that the seeds are given to communities especially those in the rural areas,’’ Owoh said.
The coordinator said that the awareness campaign was to reiterate the importance of tree planting and negative effect of cutting down trees in the community.
“Most of the people living in the rural areas don’t even know the importance of trees in their environment and that is why when they cut down trees, they don’t care to plant more.
“We will ensure that we educate them on the importance of replacing trees when they cut down any; for every tree cut down, additional three must be planted.
“We are getting seed funding in collaboration with some of our international partners, and we will ensure that they distribute to the rural areas free.
“This is part of our project in 2022, it is also part of our effort to ensure that the environmental problems are tackled efficiently in the country,” Owoh said.
He advised Nigerians to ensure that they imbibed the habit of tree planting as well as replacing any tree they bring down and shunning indiscriminate cutting of trees.
By Vivian Emoni
