‘We can’t lose earth to pollution’ — UN to support Nigeria on tackling deforestation

The United Nations says it will provide technical support to Nigeria to address deforestation in the country.

Amina Mohammed, the deputy secretary-general of the UN, said this during a tour of the Forestry Institute of Nigeria, Ibadan, during the week.

Mohammed, a former minister of environment in Nigeria and current chair of the UN sustainable development group, said there is evidence that poverty is one of the reasons Nigerians depend on forest resources for cooking and other forms of survival.

She added that the UN is working to ensure that governments at all levels scale up the right strategies on afforestation.

“Our visit to Ibadan has been a response to see how the United Nations can support the government to increase forest cover,” she said.

“It is of course a very huge challenge given that there are still levels of poverty that make people use a lot of the forest carbon to survive.

“We are looking forward to seeing how we can continue to scale up the strategy; how we can encourage our governments and how we can encourage our local government chairmen and the private sector so that forest cover becomes that which can help us maintain the planet and not lose it to massive emission and bio-diversity and pollution.”

She also commended the steps being taken by Nigeria to sustain and improve forest resources.

“Continue to fly the flag. The international partnerships are important because here you want to attract investment. Where they know there is capacity, there would be investment. It is encouraging to see that Nigeria takes the lead and supports other African countries,” she added.

In his remarks, Olusola Adepoju, the director-general of FRIN, appreciated the UN for the visit, adding that the institute would work on the necessary areas where improvement is needed.