By Abimbola Ogunnaike
The Minister of State for Environment, Dr Iziaq Salako, has disclosed that plans are underway to engage no at least 10,000 youths and retirees in the planting of six million trees across the country to mitigate the negative effects of climate change.
Salako, who made this disclosure during an interview with PUNCH Healthwise, explained that the programme is meant to create jobs for the unemployed and provide economic benefits to retired persons, while also addressing the pressing issue of environmental degradation.
According to the minister, the tree planting programme would be carried out in phases, with a focus on areas that have been affected by deforestation and desertification.
According to the World Health Organisation(WHO), climate change is impacting human lives and health in a variety of ways.
WHO noted that it threatens the essential ingredients of good health – clean air, safe drinking water, nutritious food supply, and safe shelter – and has the potential to undermine decades of progress in global health.
The global health body projected that between 2030 and 2050, climate change is expected to cause approximately 250,000 additional deaths per year from malnutrition, malaria, diarrhoea, and heat stress alone.
“Those are the kinds of programmes that we are bringing on board going forward to ensure that we arrest the challenge of land degradation.
“We engage youths, we engage retirees, and we increase the forest copper for Nigeria. At the end of the day, we are looking at creating between 5, 000 to 10, 000 jobs from this particular intervention.
“For a year, you also have those youth and retirees paid some token every month to ensure that the trees they plant are also nurtured to ensure that they germinate,” he stated.
Source: Punch online
