Warning
By Blessing Odega,
Jos, April 17, 2018 (NAN) The Plateau Government has warned the residents of the state against indiscriminate tree felling.
The Commissioner for Environment, Mr Abdullahi Abbas, issued the warning in Jos on Tuesday at an emergency meeting convened to tackle the rising menace of indiscriminate tree felling in the state.
He said that the spate of tree felling in the state was quite alarming; adding that concerted efforts should, therefore, be made to address it so as to avert the extinction of wildlife and curb deforestation.
He said that uncontrolled tree felling without structured efforts to plant new trees would have dire consequences on the people and their environment, adding that over 80 per cent of the challenges facing the environment were man-made.
“The issues of global warming, desertification, flooding, soil erosion and the loss of bio-diversity are due to man-made activities such as tree felling,” he said.
Abbas said that desertification was fast-encroaching the north-central part of the country, adding that there was a compelling need to address it.
The commissioner noted that since 2015, no local government council in the state had organised a tree planting campaign to replace those trees that were felled.
He said that there was an urgent need to create appreciable public awareness about the dangers of tree felling so as to provoke a positive behavioural change in the public towards the environment.
News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the meeting was organised for forestry officers and council chairmen drawn from all the 17 local government areas of the state. (NAN)
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