By Saheed Ibrahim

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The Ondo State Head of Service, Pastor Adeniran Adeyemo has called on the people of the state to engage in tree planting and desist from any act that would lead to environmental degradation.
Adeyemi, who was speaking at the flag off of tree planting initiative by members of the Environmental Community Development Group, National Youth Service Corps and Ondo State yesterday, said tree planting has enormous benefits to the society, encouraging residents of the state to plant trees every year.
He noted that “trees help with oxygen, helps to protect buildings against winds, helps to control erosion and many other benefits.
“I want to encourage everyone to plant trees. When you plant trees, you are creating life because it has enormous advantages”
He appreciated Ondo State Ministry of Environment and Corps Members for the initiative, describing it as auspicious
The Corps Members, in conjunction with Ministry of Environment and Da-Silva Foundation, flagged off the initiative by planting over a hundred of False Ashoka Tree, popularly called Masquerade Tree, along Alagbaka-NEPA market road.
While giving the opening speech, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Environment, Pastor Akin Asaniyan said that the world needed to do something to rescue the environment, in view of the recent climatic challenges.
He said one of the ways to save the environment was through tree planting, announcing that Ondo State Ministry of Environment would distribute millions of three seedlings to schools, corps members and other stakeholders.
Asaniyan further revealed that the Ministry had concluded plan to transform the Reuben Faoranti Park into a world-class international park for tourism, stating that the park had all natural endowments needed to become an international park.
He added that the Aketi Green Revolution initiative was geared towards ensuring that each house has a tree, due to the huge benefits in planting trees in our environment.
Speaking on behalf of NYSC the State coordinator, Mrs Victoria Ani, the Zonal Inspector, Akure Zone, Francis Adebayo, said that the exercise was necessitated to create a conducive environment for residents of the state.
While appreciating Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu and the Ministry of Environment for their support for corps members in the state, he revealed that corps members had embarked on several other projects to contribute to the development of Ondo State in terms of health, rural development, safe water, security and other initiatives.
The Executive Director of the partnering NGO, Da-Silva Foundation, Isaac Abiodun said that the world had experienced serious climatic change and there was need to ensure trees were planted and people were sensitised to desist from activities that would further deplete the ozone layer and destroy the environment.