The Adamawa State Government has introduced a cash incentive initiative for residents who plant and nurture trees to mitigate the effect of climate change in the northeastern states.
The government announced the incentive in Yola, the state capital on Friday while unveiling a tree-planting campaign with community and traditional rulers in attendance.
During the event which was convened by a newly created agency for the sustainable ecosystem, Agro-Climatic Resilience In Semi-Arid Landscape Project (ACReSAL), the government disclosed that it would re-afforest 6,000 hectares of land within six years, according to Sahara Reporters.
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ACReSAL’s Project Coordinator, Dr. Ibrahim Chinda said the agency is partnering with local communities with the cash incentive to take ownership of the re-afforestation drive.
His words: “Firstly, the Adamawa State governor has shown that he is interested in issues related to the environment and climate change. It is based on this fact that he has outlawed and banned the felling of trees for charcoal purposes.
“The ACReSAL project, in line with the governor’s directives and in line with the global trend of reversing the adverse effect of climate change, has taken it upon itself to re-afforest all the gazetted forest reserves in the state. And we shall re-afforest 1,000 hectares of land every year for six months.
“There have always been tree-plantings by both the federal and state governments, but what we’ve done differently this time is our project is community-driven.
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“We started by identifying trees that are indigenous to communities so that the environment is nurtured naturally by the tree it knows. Then we formed community interest groups to lead the effort of planting, nurturing and securing the seedlings.
“By so doing, we’re paying communities N500 to plant and nurture one seedling in one year. This means anyone who plants 100 trees will get N50,000 in one year.
“To ensure sustainability, we have equipped communities with all the tools they need; we’ve provided hoes, cutlasses, watering cans and we’ve sunk boreholes in all the places we’re doing tree-planting.”
