2020 World Environment Day: Oyetola Warns Residents Against Environmental Degradation
Governor Adegboyega Oyetola of Osun State has warned residents of the state to refrain from acts capable of undermining the environmental sustainability in Osun.
Governor Oyetola stated these on Friday at a tree-planting programme organised to commemorate the Year 2020 World Environment Day (WED), at Gbodofon area, Osogbo.
Oyetola who frowned at the affront of people who are in the habit of encroaching into government’s forests to cut down trees and set fires in the forest for farming purposes disclosed that his administration is poised to take proactive steps aimed at addressing every unlawful action of a few ignorant citizens of the state and their collaborators in order to protect and save our ecosystem.
Speaking on the theme of the World Environment Day, tagged “Biodiversity”, Oyetola disclosed that Biodiversity was essential to human development because “it is the foundation that supports all the lives on land and below the waters”.
The Governor who lamented the poor environmental management culture, said ‘it is sad to note that, on a global scale, biodiversity is being lost at a rate many times higher than that of natural extinction.
He identified illegal land clearing for farming purposes, uncontrolled logging, gathering of firewood, deforestation, indiscriminate or ill-planned bush burning, high population rate, degradation of the environment occasioned by illegal mining and illegal hunting for bushmeat as some of the factors affecting biodiversity conservation in Osun.
Earlier in his address, the Commissioner for Environment and Sanitation, Engr. Sola Oladepo, said nonchalant attitude towards biodiversity conservation in the past had culminated into massive degradation of forest reserves through flagrant encroachment of the reserves for illegal farming activities and logging.
He decried the rate at which the state has been significantly losing revenue due to the unpatriotic act, saying the act had contributed to the inability of the state to access some international benefits as enjoyed by other states.
Oladepo hinted that the state was ready to begin the plantation of 1million trees across the state as 250,000 tree seedlings have been preserved for plantation.
ENDS