Osun Government Begins Reforestation In Ago Owu, calls for Support 

Olubunmi Badiora

Osun State Commissioner for Environment and Sanitation, Hon. Mayowa Adejoorin has solicited for the support of members of community of Ago Owu forest reserves to ensure that the data gathering and capturing for getting baseline information to fill into the project development document succeeds.

Hon. Adejoorin said this while declaring open the data gathering and capturing meeting with heads of each community in a collaborative meeting to describe the benefits of reforestation to the forest reserves.

The Commissioner for Environment and Sanitation who was represented by the Permanent Secretary, Mr. Richard Oyegbami while declaring open the reforestation of the Ago Owu forest reserves stressed that by keying into the policies on the climate change and planting more trees, residents will ensure that their environment is clean and safe from all toxic gasses that could be harmful to the society.

He appreciated the members of the community for their eagerness to see that the project succeeds by converging for the meeting and advised that they should ensure that the trees are protected when they are eventually planted so that the purpose of planting them would be realised.

The Chairman, House Committee on Environment, Hon. Folorunso Ogundare, while addressing the community advised that they should collaborate and support the government in the area of protecting the government properties that would be moved to the area in order to gain the benefits of the project which will ensure more job opportunities for the members of the community.

The investors representative, Mr. Olu Ademuwagun while explaining the benefits of the project said that Osun State is blessed with lots of natural resources and that is why the smart agriculture project is brought to the state.

He therefore advised them to key into the various policies of the State government that would be brought to them through the project as there are lots of potentials in it for them and they tend to gain more from it.

The leader of the Nature Based Solution of the AhDrabad Noblesse Green, Carbon Investment Project, Dr. Edu Efe in her goodwill address that centres on the benefits of reforestation said that their cocoa and other cash crops will do better if they are nurtured under the covering of trees and thrive better and they worth more in the market.

In his goodwill message to the people, the representative from National Council on Climate Change, Mr. Abdullahi Yakubu advised them no to undermine the benefits of reforestation as it brings clean and safe air to the environment.

He stressed further that countries around the world now prefer cocoa and other cash crops that are nurtured under the shades of trees as it is of good quality and they should support the state government as it brings the reforestation to the Ago Owu forest reserves to make sure that there cash crops will be the best coming from Nigeria to those countries.

Earlier before their meeting with the community, the Commissioner for Environment and Sanitation, Hon. Mayowa Adejoorin played host to the National Council on Climate Change and the NANOG Consortium for living up to their promises of using Osun State as a pilot test for carbon investment in his office at the Government Secretariat.

He assured them of the continuous support of the State Government under the leadership of Asiwaju Ademola Adeleke as the State will continue to provide both human and materials supports to ensure that reforestation and the implementation of action plans on climate change is done to create enabling environment for businesses to thrive and that the Climate Change policies is fully regulated in Osun State.

While thanking the State Government and the commissioner for the warm reception given them, Mr. Olu Ademuwagun, said the State will continue to serve as the reference point for other states in the Country and the communities in the reserves will benefit from it in terms of employment, and the economic and social developments for the State and communities in particular.

The leader of the Nature Based Solution of the AhDrabad Noblesse Green, Carbon Investment Project, Dr. Edu Efe while explaining their mission to the State, said that they are in the State for the commissioning of data gathering and capturing by getting the necessary baseline information to fill into the project development document.

While reeling out the importance of the project, Dr. Edu says the project will address the restoration of the degraded Ago Owu forest reserves where there are farm settlements where the farmers will not be sent out but they will be introduced to smart farming where the trees will grow along with the cocoa and the farmers will gain more productivity from the cocoa cultivation and economic trees will be introduced into the forest to improve the shades in the forest and it would raise up the regeneration process of the forest.

She added that solar grid will be introduced to the communities who are going to be first beneciaries of the project and alternative livelihood will also be introduced to the communities to reduce the pressure on the forest.

It would be recalled that the team were in the state earlier this year to pay a courtesy call to Senator Ademola Adeleke on the Federal government’s nomination of osun state for a pilot project on Carbon Investment.