By Fadlillah Abdallah
The Sokoto State Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to boost afforestation in the state.
Partners in the six-month Go Green Project include Shehu Maikoli Foundation, Eco Africa Climate Change Foundation and NUJ.
At the signing ceremony, which took place at the NUJ Press Centre on Wednesday, the council chairman, Dalhatu Safiyal-Magori said the project is designed to address ecological challenges in the state.
He added that Sokoto is one of the states in Nigeria that faces ecological problems such as desertification, flood, erosion and drought.
“The recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report has warned that global temperatures need to be kept from rising by more than 1.5°C.
“However, in Sokoto some of the drivers of the ecological problems includes conditions of high population growth, urbanisation, poverty, poor environmental education and deforestation.
“This lead to the proposed tripartite partnership as a means of conserving our environment with particular emphasis to climate change vulnerable communities,” he stated.
According to Safiyal-Magori, components of health, water and sanitation, environmental awareness and tree planting issues, especially economic trees for nutrition in climate change vulnerable areas were contained in the project.
“The project will establish a tree planting and distribution project. This will definitely generate employment and promote the development of forest products through village enterprises.
“Our aim is to motivate the society toward becoming more engaged on tree planting and to emphasise that benefits drive from the act cannot be enumerated,” he added.
The NUJ Chairman, Chairman of Shehu Maikoli Foundation, Altine Kajiji and representative of Eco Africa Climate Change foundation, Aliyu Shehu signed the MoU overseen by the project legal officer, Mrs Jamila Anka.
