Ogun to plant 1million trees in 2025 – State govt
yarkarkara
The Ogun State government has disclosed plans to plant 1 million trees by the end of the year’s planting season.
This, according to the government, would be achieved through a one citizen, one tree campaign across all 20 local governments area of the state.
Governor Dapo Abiodun, noted that these trees would not only provide fruit, medicine, assist in reducing urban temperature, but mitigate the effect of flood, occasion by depletion of the ozone layer.
The Governor stated this on Saturday, at the 2025 Ogun Tree Planting Day, organized by the Ministry of Environment in collaboration with the Ministries of Forestry, Physical & Urban Development, Housing, and Community Development.
Abiodun, represented by the Commissioner for Forestry, Oludotun Taiwo, urged residents of the state to embrace tree planting as a collective responsibility to combat deforestation and protect the environment.
He said, “Today we are not just planting trees, we are planting hope, health and the future of Ogun state. Trees give us oxygen, they clean our air, shield our climate and yet, year after year they disappear.
“ This year’s theme is plant and grow trees, sustain life. It aligned with our ISEYA agenda, especially the A that stands for agriculture and the environment. Trees are nature’s infrastructure. without them nothing will stand.
“We must be honest climate change is real. We have seen it for long dry seasons, flash flood washing away dams, rising temperature affecting livestock and humans. These are no longer distance threats, they are local problems and local problems need local solution. One tree can provide shade, fruit, medicine, and income, so imagine what 1 million trees across Ogun state can do.
“Today we are launching the one citizen, one tree campaign across all 20 local governments, our target is to plant 1 million trees before the end of the planting season this year, to establish community trees in each local government, to train 500 youths and women as green ambassadors,to integrate tree planting into our school curriculum and market sanitation programs”.
Speaking earlier, the Commissioner for Environment, Ola Oresanya, maintained that the Abiodun-led administration has a robust plan for decarbonization to make the state more livable especially, with its strength in industrialization.
He noted that the world, according to the United Nations, is facing an unprecedented climate crisis, and Ogun being an industrial area, is conscious of planting trees in all areas of the state.
Oresanya asserted that tree planting in the state is not just ceremonial but strategic, scientific, and survival driven to mitigate devastation of flood, disclosing plans to collaborate more with industries, integrate tree planting into school curriculum in other to encourage planting, adding that incentives would be given to groups, schools and institutions doing well in planting.
In his good will message, the Commissioner for Physical and Urban Development, Tunji Odunlami, noted that tree is life and without it, all will be dead, calling for collective effort to sustain tree planting.
Odunlami while stressing that the regulation for town planning provides for the preservation and planting of trees, appealed to all especially developers to refrain from indiscriminately cutting down trees when carrying building development.
Meanwhile, Adeyemo Olayomade, a representative from the Nigeria Conservation Foundation(NCF), assured that they will see to it that the trees planted are nurtured to maturity.
