CITAD launches campaign to plant 1m trees across northern Nigeria

The Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) has launched a one-year campaign to plant one million indigenous trees across the 19 states of Northern Nigeria. The campaign commenced Monday in Jama'are local government area of Bauchi state and it is scheduled to run from Sept. 2, 2026, to Sept. 1, 2027. The executive director of CITAD, Mr Y. Z. Ya'u, said the initiative would combine large-scale tree planting with a pilot forest restoration programme aimed at rehabilitating degraded forest areas. Ya'u said CITAD, in collaboration with partners, had planted 100 trees in an area of Jama'are that was formerly a forest, as part of the pilot restoration exercise. He said the initiative was designed to demonstrate that degraded forest areas could be restored through deliberate intervention, sustained tree planting, community participation and proper monitoring. 'We are not only interested in planting one million trees and counting them, we also want to see how we can restore areas that have been degraded and lost their forest cover. 'That is why, together with our partners, we planted 100 trees in what used to be a forest here in Jama'are as a pilot forest restoration exercise,' he said. Participants in the exercise included officials of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), forest guards and members of the host communities. The exercise covered Kwanar Digiza, Jogayel and the Government Arabic College, Jama'are. Among the indigenous tree species planted were mango, baobab, tamarind, Borassus aethiopum and Shea butter trees, among others. .