With 63% Landmass Facing Desertification, NNPC Begins Massive Tree Planting Nationwide

Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja

The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) yesterday announced that it was ramping up its tree planting campaign in a bid to curb the negative impact of desertification on 63 per cent of Nigeria’s total landmass.

Speaking on the occasion of the commemoration of the 2024 World Environment Day (WED), the Managing Director of NNPC Foundation, Emmanuella Arukwe, stated that the company was aligning with global best practice in the energy industry, reason the Foundation was established as the social arm of the national oil company.

The programme in Abuja, themed: ‘‘Land Restoration, Desertification and Drought Resilience’’, was held in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Environment.

Represented by the Executive Director, Programme Management,  Mr. Aminu  Muazu, the managing director explained that one of the key focus areas of the NNPC Foundation is to undertake impactful initiatives on environment.

According to her, part of the efforts at NNPC Foundation is to mitigate land erosion, desertification and drought by re-vegetating the environment through aggressive tree planting campaigns and exercises.

This, it said it was doing through collaboration and partnership with various  relevant government agencies, such as the Federal Ministry of Environment, and through schools.

“And in commemoration of the 2024 world environment day, we have lined up strategic programmes, including tree planting campaigns in schools, sponsorship of quizzes/competitions to celebrate the day, presentations to school children and other events, all targeted at sensitising the citizenry on environmental preservation,” Arukwe stated.

She pointed out that the environment is intricate and must be preserved to ensure human existence and that of the various species of flora and fauna that create a balance in the ecosystem.

Arukwe urged Nigerians to therefore, be careful not to hurt the environment through their activities, such as tree cutting, indiscriminate timber logging business, bush burning and others.

She explained that the event was a call to collective affirmative action to take responsibility for the survival of the immediate environment and bring about positive spiral effects of human action to the global habitat.

“According to the UN Convention, about 40 per cent of the world’s land is degraded and is directly impacting half of the global population, threatening economies and means of livelihood. Drought has increased by 29 per cent since the year 2000 and if persistent, can affect over three quarters of the global population by the year 2050

“Nigeria, according to the United Nations, has the highest deforestation rate in the world, with an estimated 3.7 per cent of its forest lost every year. 15 out of the 36 States, predominantly in the northern part of the country, are affected by desertification and 63.3 per cent of the country’s entire land mass suffers desert encroachment.

“Landmass, vegetation, farmlands, agro-economies, and other means of livelihood in the country are fast being overtaken by the twin challenge of desertification and drought,” she added.

According to her, the school tree planting campaigns will involve over 500 school children in select parts of the country who will be provided with tree seedlings for planting, which will be carried out simultaneously in the identified schools during the WED events.

“Based on criticality and needs assessment, we have commenced engagements with the Katsina State Government to plant one million trees in the state, as part of our efforts to tackle desertification. We will be embarking on the first phase in July this year,” she said.

Also speaking, the Minister of State, Environment, Dr Iziaq Salako, said that of the top 50 most biodiverse countries in the world according to Mongabay, a US based non-profit conservation and environmental science platform, 46 of them are from the global South.

“Conversely, the Global North that represents 15 per cent of world’s population have benefitted economically the most from practices negatively impacting global diversity thus controlling 61 per cent of global GDP.

“In summary, the Global North has the resources, the Global South has the biodiversity, and the world needs them both if we are to mitigate the worst consequences of climate change and a century of our ravenous consumption of the planet’s resources,” he said.

Earlier, the Permanent Secretary in the ministry, Mahmud Kambari, acknowledged that everyone has a vital role in safeguarding the planet.