By Oyibo Salihu
Lokoja
Minister of Environment, Mrs. Amina Mohammed, has called on both states and local government in the country to collaborate with relevant stakeholders in the area of forestry conservation to make the environment safe for the people.
Mrs. Mohammed who stated this in Lokoja yesterday during a stakeholders’ review meeting of forest reserve management and conservation organised by Kogi state ministry of environment, said deforestation and other illegal activities had posed a threat to the environment.
Presented by a Federal Director, forestry, in the Federal Ministry of Environment, Mr. Bankole Philips, the minister noted that government alone cannot preserve the environment, urging rural communities to own and protect the forest to minimise the incessant deforestations.
“There is every need for us to protect the forest. Some of these trees are medicinal, felling them indiscriminately will pose negative effect to the people and the environment,” she said.
In his remarks, Governor Yahaya Bello said there was no alternative to conserve the natural resource in the forest in the interest of human being and the animals that used the forest as habitat.
The governor, who was represented by the Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Dr Folashade Arike Ayoade, pointed out that it takes over 20 years for trees to reach maturity, warned those in the habit of burning and felling of trees to stop to avoid depletion of ozone layer which he said had adverse effects on human skin.
He assured that his administration would not leave any stone unturned to protect the environment and make safe for people.
Earlier, the Commissioner for Environment, Mrs. Rosemary Osikoya, said the incessant deforestations and the lack of concern for environment by previous administrations contributed to the flood devastation in 2012, which affected nine local governments.