Niger State Ministry for Environment and Forestry has embarked on the the fixing of the state’s depleted Forest Reserve. The state’s Permanent Secretary for the Ministry, Dr. Lucky Barau made this known to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Minna. The Minister disclosed that the state had over 100 forest reserves before; but the figure has reduced to 98 due to unapproved deforestation carried out by unlicensed people.
Addressing the News Agency, Dr. Lucky said the government has set out to fix the issue by setting up laws that criminalise unapproved felling of trees in the state, as well as introduction of reforestation; thereby populating the otherwise depleted reserves.
In his words, “The Niger State Government reached out to some international organizations, luckily the UN-Habitat and South Korea government intervened with a project for urban reforestation. The projects will involve planting of forest and herbal trees.” Barau said the project involves a total of 50 hectares of land: 45 hectares at Bosso Dam for management of water shade and the remaining five are spread across the state in 10 selected schools. These schools are to found nature/green clubs that will learn about forestry and ultimately manage the trees.
