Plateau State Governor Simon Lalong has urged the citizens of Plateau State to imbibe the culture of tree planting in order to address deforestation which has increased the challenges of climate change.
Governor Lalong said this when he flagged off tree planting initiative at Nigeria's oldest golf club, the Rayfield Golf Club Jos organised by Green Renaissance Africa in collaboration with the Plateau State Government.
A statement signed by Simon Macham his director of Press and Public Affairs 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 in order to enhance environmental beauty of the State which is a natural attraction to people from within and outside the country.
Commissioner for Environment Hon. Yakubu Idi described the event as very important particularly because it reminds all that each tree cut down deserves to be replaced with at least three.
Director of Green Renaissance Africa, Amer Chami, explained that the target is to plant 250,000 trees and also encourage the culture of tree planting by Plateau citizens as a way balancing nature and human development.
In a remark, Captain of Rayfield Golf Club, Air Cmdr. Lazarus Mshelia said members of the club are very supportive of the exercise which helped in replacing 30 trees recently removed in the cause of improving the golf course with 960 new trees.
By Golok Nanmwa,
The State of Plateau