Gyang Bere, Jos
Plateau State Governor, Simon Lalong, has urged citizens of the state to imbibe the culture of tree planting to address deforestation which has increased the challenges of climate change.
Lalong stated this when he flagged off the tree planting initiative at Nigeria’s oldest golf club, Rayfield Golf Club, Jos, organised by Green Renaissance Africa in collaboration with the Plateau State Government.
Lalong said he was happy to perform the tree planting exercise which is meant to replace all the trees felled in the cause of upgrading the Rayfield Golf Course.
He then directed that all students should be ready to plant a tree each when schools reopen to enhance environmental beauty of the state, which is a natural attraction to people from within and outside the country.
Commissioner for Environment, Yakubu Idi, described the event as very important because it reminded all that each tree cut down deserves to be replaced with at least three.
Director of Green Renaissance Africa, Amer Chami, said the target was to plant 250,000 trees and also encourage the culture of tree planting by Plateau citizens as a way of balancing nature and human development.
Captain of Rayfield Golf Club, Lazarus Mshelia, said members of the club were very supportive of the exercise which helped in replacing the 30 trees recently removed in the cause of improving the golf course with 960 new trees.