The Abuja Environmental Protection Board (AEPB) has placed a ban on tree felling in the Federal Capital Territory.
Dr Abubakar Yabo, Director of the AEPB, made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) yesterday in Abuja.
Yabo said the board had engaged on sensitisation campaigns on the dangers of indiscriminate tree felling and had stipulated a fine of N50,000 for defaulters.
“There is a lot of campaign on the ban of felling of trees; the felling of trees, if uncurbed, will cause us deforestation, and to avoid deforestation, what we require in place is afforestation, that is planting of trees.
“So in that respect, anybody found cutting tree without proper approval from Abuja Environmental Protection Board will be fined N50,000 and will be made to plant three other trees around the area where he cut the tree.
“We are fighting vigorously to ensure that people understand the importance of keeping the environment vegetated so that we don’t fell tress; we don’t cause deforestation, instead we are promoting afforestation in the city.
Yabo also urged owners of undeveloped plots of lands to tend their plots to avoid sanctions.
He said that the board would collaborate with the Abuja Geographic Information Systems (AGIS) to collate data of landowners whose lands were overgrown and untended.
Such land owners risked prosecution, he added.
“We are collaborating with AGIS, trying to get data to know the owners of these lands because some of the lands have changed hands; the actual owners may not be the ones that are handling them.
“With AGIS we will ensure that we have the audited report of the landowners, so that we will be able to sanction them,’’ he said. (NAN)