Chief Philip Asiodu, The President, Nigerian Conservation Foundation and a former Chief economic Adviser to the President revealed that Nigerian environment has continually degraded as a result of unfriendly climate change

Asiodu, who spoke as the chairman of the Green Lecture on Environmental Action in Lagos on Friday, said the country’s forest cover stood at about four per cent, a far cry from the 25 per cent average recommended by the Food and Agriculture organization of the United Nations for a sustainable environment.

He said, “the issue of the environmental challenges must be taken serious because we have degraded our environment”, adding that at independence, Nigeria’s forest cover stood at 30 per cent, but today, we have it at an alarming four per cent.”

“FAO advises that every country should have 25 per cent of forest cover. It will be a great agenda if we decide to plant 250 kilometres of forest in the next 10 years. That will be a great step in the mitigation of climate change,” he pointed out.

Asiodu further emphasized the need for the government to devote funds from ecological votes to mitigating the effects of climate change.

 He said “very little of the ecological votes have gone to the sustainable management of our environment. This amount should be employed to mitigate the damaging ecological events. We should have a fund devoted to reforestation.”

He also urged the Federal government to empower non-governmental organizations in the fight against climate change, as they were capable of attracting funds from the international community.

“The number of NGOs that are concerned with the management of our environment is encouraging, so they should be empowered,” Asiodu Said.

Speakers at the summit harped on the need for investment in rainforest, which they said was the answer to reducing human carbon footprints on the environment.

One of the speaker and member of NCF, Mr. Desmond Majekodunmi said, rainforest could be the only “life support” for planet.

“Currently, we have about 400 parts per million of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere against the 280ppm, which was the perfect number. If this has caused the one degree of global warming that has produced devastating results, then, by the time it reaches two degrees, the world will be in crisis. But the crisis is not yet beyond our control, we can still have a short gap – the rainforest,” Asiodu stated.

Others, who spoke at the summit, included the wife of the Ogun State Governor, Mrs. Olufunso Amosun; Chief Executive Officer, EcoExchange, Mrs. Teni Majekodunmi; and Noolywood actress, Staphanie Okereke Linus.