World Environment Day: Cross River to plant 5m trees

Abuja -  The Cross River Government plans to plant five million trees to commemorate this year’s World Environment Day, says Mr Edward Gekpe, the Permanent Secretary in the state’s Ministry of Environment.

Gekpe, on Monday in Abuja, said  that the aim of the exercise was to restore depleted forest in the state back to their original state.

According to him, the exercise will sustain the environment and assist in reducing the impact of climate change caused by the high level of carbon emission into the atmosphere.

He noted that the state government had made the tree planting exercise, instituted in 2009, an annual event.

According to him, educational institutions and faith-based organisations will be involved in the exercise “to emphasise the gains of tree planting to the environment”.

“This is aimed at regenerating the state’s forest at the rate of five million trees every year; this will assist the state in sustaining the forest and its preservation and conservation.

“The state government, through the Ministry of Environment, is giving out seedlings to the people and also encouraging them with monetary incentives to plant trees and outright purchase of seedlings,” he said.

The permanent secretary said that the government had worked out measures to check the high rate of deforestation, discourage and stop illegal logging of trees.

He said that the state government had imposed a two-year ban on the logging of trees to ensure conservation and preservation of forest reserves which had been depleted due to the activities of illegal loggers.

World Environment Day is an annual global event celebrated on June 5 and aimed at stimulating worldwide awareness on the environment and encouraging political attention and action.

The theme of the 2011 celebration is “Forests: Nature at Your Service”.