Ogun: We Have Planted Over 3million Trees in Two Years – Hon. Oludotun

Hon. Taiwo Oludotun needs little or no introduction in the political landscape of Ogun State. Twinny has fondly called, is the Commissioner for Forestry in Ogun State. The former Commissioner for Rural Development in the state took the duo of KOFOWOROLA AMOSU and ENIOLA BAKARE on his journey in the Forest Ministry in the last two years and challenges facing the ministry. The graduate of Electrical Power Engineering from University of Florida, USA warned against deforestation to checkmate global warming and emission of carbon dioxide to the air.

What effort are you putting in place to protect the nine forest reserves in the state?

We have engaged the locals, because our forest guards are not permitted to carry arms and weapons, so what we do is to engage these vigilante body or So-Safe, the Nigerian police to help us to curb this illegality. So far, we have been doing our best to curb it. We will continue to do it until we are able to check the anomalies in the forest.

Ogun state happens to be the only state with the ministry of forestry to every other state. What we have in Nigeria is the ministry of forestry under ministry of environment, but the good thing is that we have it as a full fledge ministry in Ogun state because it has actually helps us to manage forest reserves and conservation areas. In Ogun state, we have nine Forest reserves and the total landmine is well over 250,000 hectares. The advantage of these forestry reserves is that we have age long forest in Ogun state. The first forest reserve that ever existed in Nigeria is that of Olokemeji in Odeda local government. That forest has been in existence since 1915 and the oldest forest you can have in Nigeria now. Forest reserve in Nigeria is a kind of climate checker in the sense that we all have been hearing climate change, global warming and the rest, that why we are talking about tree planting. The excess of tree planting is that it absorbs the carbon dioxide in the air and it emits oxygen and also provides a very cool serene ambience for our people.

Another advantage is that it checks wind disaster and prevents erosion. It helps ecosystem of the forest where you have the coexistence of all kinds of animal species within the forest. This forest also serves as the source of raw materials to industries. We have more industries today that look up to wood products as their source of raw material and it creates employment for the people.

What are the challenges your ministry is confronted with and how are you tackling activities of illegal operators?

There’s no doubt, we’ve been facing lots of challenges, part of it is illegal felling of trees, illegal settlers, people that encroached our forests, we also have people that are mining our forests. These are some of the problems. Some people they go to our forest to excavate sand. These are some of the challenges we have been facing in Ogun state and we have put all these under check.

Part of what we are doing is to repeal the law that is governing the ministry of forest, so that we have a very good punitive measure for those that are intruding or destroying our forests. We are all out to preserve our forest because we know the advantage of it to our environment and the climate in general.

Another thing is that, in Ogun state, between August 2022 to May 2023 during my first appointment in office, we have been able to plant over one million trees within that period of time and this year 2024 we have the intention of planting about 2 million trees.

The one million trees that were planted in year 2022 to 2023 what is their survival rate?

I’m glad to tell you that the survival rate is 90% of the trees that we planted and not only have planted 1 million trees, we have partners.

What is the state government doing to expand its plantation?

We have been able to partner with the Nigerian Breweries and somewhere around Olokemeji one of our forests in Odeda and they’ve been able to plant trees in about 150 hectares of land. The state government is also planning to give them additional 300 hectares of land to make it 500hectares of land provided by the state government by this partnership.

We are also partnering with IITA in Ibadan and we have been able to give them about 500 hectares of land and they have planted about 150 hectares of trees. Another thing this ministry is doing is to engage private sector, we have decided to and engage our locals. Part of what we do for the locals that have encroached our forests is to partner with them because we can’t actually chase them away like that.

So, what we have actually done is to partner with some of these farmers, that they should come as a group. We have what we call Agro-forestry. In this case, they plant what they are going to eat and plant trees for us. It’s a kind of subsistence farming where the farmers can only plant what they want to eat and they give us in return, the plant trees for us. And we have been able to do that successfully around Ilaro and Aworo forests.

How many casualties have you recorded in the last one or two years?

Definitely, we have had casualties. I will say an average of 5 to 10 forest guards per annum. We thank God we are able to reduce it, because the terrain is not a friendly one.

Is there any collaboration or plans to expand revenue generation of the ministry?

Yes, we are expected to make revenue, but this government is not too keen about the revenue. The state government is keen about planting more trees than the revenue. Though, it’s a revenue making ministry, but we are just keen about planting trees. But at least, so far, so good in terms of revenue, we are not doing badly, at least, per annum we still meet our target of about 80%.

What is the state doing to tackle atmospheric carbon releasing to the environment from the forests?

Well, the best thing is for us to plant trees and we are planning more trees and to protect the ones we have planted. So, there won’t be further destruction of our forests. So, the essence is for us to also preach to our people the importance for them to plant trees and save every trees we have around and reduce the number of trees that we cut and for us to check this global warming and the emission of the carbon in the air, we need to plant more trees.

Ogun State Government gave ultimatum to illegal occupants in the forest reserve, how effective has it been?

Well, we gave ultimate to the illegal settlers to leave, it’s has been effective because we have been doing it in a more friendly way considering the economic situation of this country and more so to see how best we can do it without anybody being harmed or hurt and to the best of our knowledge, we have been doing our best. We need to protect our heritage because we discovered that most of these illegal settlers have actually intruded to the queen Forest, and this is one of the heritage of this state, as a matter of fact it’s an heritage to Africa. So, we need to protect it, hence, we need to chase them out of the forest, but so far, we have been doing it in a friendly way and they are complying to leave the Forest.

Has there been any arrest of any offenders in the forest?

Yes, they have been arrest of offenders. We have been able to arrest about 20 to 25 of them for illegal felling of our trees, illegal settlers, and illegal mining. Some of them are in court now. They have been taken to court for prosecution.

Of what economic value are the forests to Ogun government?

The economic value cannot be quantified. Apart from the economic value to Ogun state, it also gives environmental value. Like I said earlier, it provide job for our people and helps the state to generate more revenue and also create emoluments to our people. As it creates employment, we create wealth to our people.