Green Lagos. 5 million trees and jobs

A tree planting, garden and park development scheme, launched by the Lagos State Government , has brought 69k new jobs – Nigerian “Premium Times” reports.
Over 28,000 people were employed in 2008-2014 for tree planting alone. Through the scheme, the government also created jobs for 500 plumbers, over 6,200 electricians, 12,500 bricklayers, 15,600 gardeners, 2,500 painters, nearly 15,000 welders, 2,500 labourers and nearly 2,200 security personnel. 15 graphic artists and 10 sculptors were also employed to take care of the artwork for the project.
“- In 2008 when we launched the tree planting exercise, our target was to plant one million trees in 10 years. We have planted over five million across Lagos- that is a feat of 6o years achieved in just seven years” – says Babatunde Fashola, Lagos State Governor, quoted by “Daily Independent”.
Tunji Bello, the Environment Minister for the Lagos State emphasises that such projects are high on the local government’s agenda.
“The alarming growing destruction of our forest is of serious concern to us. Our forest cover is rapidly disappearing. The encroachment of forest land is due to the growing population and city expansion. As much as this is expected, we could not accept this trend as enough reasons to indiscriminately fell trees and destroy forests. We must all ensure that each time we cut trees, we quickly replace them with new ones” – said Bello, quoted by “Premium Times”.
The tree planting, garden and park development campaign continues. The campaign’s slogan for this year is “the life is better with tree”.

photo: Lagos State Government, Ministry Of The Enviroment/http://moelagos.gov.ng

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