The Faculty of Earth and Environmental Sciences (FEES), Bayero University, Kano (BUK) has commenced preparations to organize two National Environmental Conferences in the institution.
The Dean of the faculty, Professor Aliyu Barau made this known when he led management of the faculty on a visit to the University’s Vice Chancellor, Professor Sagir Adamu Abbas.
He said, “The faculty is currently making efforts to organize two National Conferences on Islam and Environment, as well as Corruption and Environment.”
Prof. Barau said the first conference would be organized in collaboration with the International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT) to consider the role of religion in tackling environmental challenges.
According to him, the second conference would seek to address the challenges of corruption in the environment especially looking at the reports of Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) and Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) which indicated corruption as the primary cause of building collapses across the country.
Prof. Barau also hinted that the faculty was making an initiation to set-up a Bio-cultural garden.
The Dean said the university was a natural repository of indigenous trees as a result of efforts from the faculty, adding that he was granted an Africa Ecologist Award by British Ecological Society (BES) to sustain indigenous trees.
According to him, last year, the World Bank spent over £23 billion on tree preservation and conservation but unfortunately Nigeria was not among the beneficiary countries. He said if BUK would adopt this policy, it would serve as a model among all institutions in Nigeria.
Responding, the Vice Chancellor of the University, Professor Sagir Adamu Abbas said the University would come up with a policy aimed at preserving indigenous trees with a view to stopping them from extinction.
He said the idea of preserving the indigenous trees was necessary giving their strategic importance to the eco-system and human lives.
Prof. Abbas added that the University would welcome the idea of allocating a large portion of land for preserving those trees, saying that many of them were medicinal in nature.
He decried the habit of incessant felling of trees and the lack of a comprehensive policy thrust in the state that would preserve the trees and punish the offenders. He stated that felling of trees for firewood increases so much havoc to the environment.
According to Bayero University Bulletin, the vice chancellor said the University would map its trees and come up with a tree conservation policy.
AgroClimateNews
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