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The Ogun State Head of Service, Mr Kolawole Fagbohun, has called for the use of technology to drive sustainability and conservation of forests.
According to a release, the Head of Service, represented by Permanent Secretary of the Bureau of Service Matter, Dipo Ogunfowora, made this call on Sunday while speaking during the International Day of Forests 2024 held at the Ministry of Forestry, Governor’s Office, Abeokuta.
He called for the adoption of modern dynamics forestry practice, such as the latest ways of curbing insect and pest invasion, the use of data analysis and artificial intelligence to monitor forest ecosystems, generating assistance with the migration of tree species to build a climate resilient forestry, among others.
This year International Day of Forests has the theme “Forests and Innovation: New Resolution for A Better World”.
He said, “Constant threat to forest survival at the global, national and local level, include deforestation, forest degradation, land usage conflict, lack of governance enforcement, climate change and invasion of forests by illegal dwellers.
“All of these factors are militating against effective growth of our forests and it, therefore, requires the joint efforts of all to tackle these challenges.”
According to Fagbohun Ogun State has been able to constantly tackle these challenges by evacuating intruders from its nine reserves, planting more trees to avoid deforestation and getting involved in partnerships with private entities for forest regeneration.
“The conservation and protection of forests is a collective responsibility of all and this is why we should all desist from activities such as burning of trees, farm cultivation on forest reserves, felling of trees and other illegal acts that can have adverse effects on the society,” he asserted.
Also, the Commissioner for Forestry, Taiwo Oludotun, noted a platform for online payment for logging operations had been set up by the ministry to block revenue leakages from tree harvesting.
Oludotun, represented by the Permanent Secretary in the ministry, Mr Timothy Olatunji, also lauded the state government on its assistance towards achieving the target of planting over one million tree seedlings on 848.33hectares in forest reserves across the state last year.
He said that the ministry had also planted 4,080 trees at Ogun Agro-cargo Airport at Iperu in Ikenne Local Government Area to improve the aesthetics of the airport.

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