By Umar Sani
The United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF has emphasised the need for youth to imbibe the habit of tree planting as a way of life.
This emphasis was made by UNICEF’s Bauchi Office, Water and Sanitation Hygiene Officer, Nanbam Michael during an occasion in commemoration of the 2025 World Environment Day (WED) for Bauchi State held at Bauchi College of Agriculture on Friday.
Nanbam who noted the, WED 2025 Theme: “Our Land. Our Future. We are #GenerationRestoration”, explained that
“World Environment Day is the United Nations’ flagship day for encouraging worldwide awareness and action for the protection of our environment.
“In line with the 2025 theme, UNICEF in collaboration with Bauchi State Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Agency (RUWASSA), has selected tertiary institutions to commemorating this important day through targeted advocacy and community engagement.”
She added that the selection of tertiary institutions was strategic to sow in the youth the culture of tree planting in order to have sustainability.
According to Nanbam, “This is strategic as th objective of this year’s event is to raise awareness and encourage young people to sensitize their communities about, the dangers of indiscriminate tree cutting, the urgent need to promote tree planting as a means of protecting the environment, improving groundwater recharge, and mitigating climate change impacts.”
She expressed concern that tree cutting contributes to desertification, flooding, and loss of biodiversity noting that every tree planted today is an investment in the health, climate, and economy of future generations.
Also speaking, the Provost of the Bauchi State College of Agriculture, Ahmed Isah noted that the advocacy to the college is timely.
Represented by the Head of Department, Forestry and Environmental Technology of the college, Modibbo Saleh, the provost noted that the college have already made preparation to plant over One thousand trees in the premises.
Ahmed noted “We understand our role tertiary institutions to teach our students the benefit of the tree.
“This will promote environmental education and modeling eco-friendly behaviors as the will extent the message to their immediate environment.”
He expressed confidence that the institution will ensure the trees planted are nurturing to grow.
Our correspondent gathered that UNICEF is supporting Bauchi State in addressing the impacts of climate change by providing technical assistance for the construction of climate-resilient toilets in schools, healthcare facilities, and other public places.
As part of this effort, over 100 Toilet Business Owners (TBOs) have been trained and are actively supporting communities to upgrade WASH facilities to be more climate resilient.