Nigerian Conservation Foundation (NCF) has supplied about 20,000 plant seedlings to Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Anambra State to boost the afforestation drive of the institution.
Special Adviser to the Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Charles Esimone, on Land Resources and Management, Prof. Peter Nnabude, told Sunday that the seedlings would be planted in the areas mapped for it.
Receiving the NCF delegation in his office, the VC told his guests that their intervention was timely as the university was making concerted efforts at increasing the number of trees in the institution as its forest zone had been degraded.
Esimone said that his administration was working hard to reclaim and improve on the biodiversity status of the institution’s natural resource endowment, to transform it into a resource base for teaching, research and ecotourism.
The VC disclosed that the present NCF- sponsored afforestation programme was located in the area marked for natural conservation and covers a total area of 62 hectares (14.92 ha).
In his remarks, the Director General of NCF, Dr. Muhtari Aminu Kano, who was represented by NCF’s Director of Technical Programme, Dr. Joseph Onoja, commended the university for its willingness and commitment to the partnership.
