The introduction of Project 250k for Climate Change, a program that will help Nigerian youth grow 250,000 trees around the nation, has been announced by the ministry of youth and sports in Nigeria. At a side event sponsored by the Ministry of Environment in the Nigerian pavilion at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27), which is taking place in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, the Minister of Youth and Sports, Mr. Sunday Dare, made the announcement.
He claimed that by organizing themselves into large groups to make their views heard and positively influence the discussions at the climate summit, young people have transformed into agents of change in the story of climate change. Not only are young people climate change victims, but they are also important changemakers, business owners, and innovators who can advance the cause. Therefore, their extraordinary global mobilization demonstrates the immense potential they have to significantly contribute to the accomplishment of COP27 and beyond goals.
Youth should assist in order to provide a better future.
There was a plea to youth, to help the federal government in its endeavors to start creating a better and brighter future for every citizen and also to provide a better planet for them and future generations. Mr. Dare then pledged the youth that the ministry will do absolutely everything in its power in order to support them in recognizing and emphasizing the critical role that youth play in supporting sustainable development and a sustainable environment.
Mohammed Abdullahi, the Minister of Environment, also spoke at the event and stressed that in order for Nigeria to meet its climate change mitigation target, the role and contributions of the youth must be recognized and enlisted. He went on to say that the truth is that the majority of kids must be involved in all climate change mitigation efforts. The efforts and will of both the youths and the Federal Government of Nigeria will propel them forward.
It was encouraged to undergraduates to adopt a conservation culture.
The One Student One Tree Project (OSOTP) is a collaboration between the T.R.E.E. Initiative and Nigerian Tertiary Institutions. The initiative was initiated in partnership with the Growing Green Initiatives at Nigeria’s Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH) Faculty of Agricultural Sciences. The project was designed to encourage undergraduates to adopt a conservation culture that will reverse environmental degradation in our communities and ensure that economic development and a higher standard of living do not come at the price of the environment.
OSOTP is directly related to nine of the seventeen Sustainable Development Goals. In addition to embracing OSOTP as a Climate Action, we are campaigning for a parliamentary act to make it a policy in both public and private higher institutions across Nigeria. We are campaigning for legislation that would require all students, particularly those in the Faculties of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, to plant and care for trees before graduating. With the passage of such legislation by the National Assembly, tree planting will become a national policy as well as an academic module for undergraduate students.
Thousands of seedlings will be distributed freely annually.
LAUTECH has launched an ambitious afforestation effort, the first of its type by an African university. Under the OSOTP, about 1 million trees will be planted on the LAUTECH campus. Growing Green Initiatives at the University is planned to generate approximately 10 million tree seedlings over the next five years, which will be marketed to farmers and investors interested in commercial tree plantation. Thousands of seedlings will be delivered annually to smallholder farmers around the country through the T.R.E.E. Initiative to encourage agroforestry and afforestation. We are duplicating this idea across the country, one institution at a time, with the help of donors and state actors.
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