The Cross River State governor, Sen Bassey Edet Otu has signed into law, a bill to establish a Climate and Green Economy Commission.
The event which took place at the Dan Archibong lodge, the temporary office of the governor in Calabar, the state capital, was witnessed by top government officials including the state Deputy Governor, secretary to the state government as well as the leadership of the state house of assembly.
The governor who said that the law was aimed at preserving the rich biodiversity of the state, maintained that it marked “another bold step by my administration to engender a sustainable environment through the protection of the rich and yet fragile ecosystem of Cross River State..
“For us in Cross River State, the environmental consciousness among the citizenry is simply our way of life. Almost all our actions are guided by the principle of “LIVING AT PEACE WITH NATURE”. This consciousness had greatly contributed to the mitigation of natural catastrophes that our geographical zone is proned to. We have halted and reversed community based deforestation activities by adopting sustainable farming practices.
According to governor Otu, “the key element of the nature-positive strategy is the regeneration method, whereby we have undertaken the planting of millions of trees in our depleted forests. We have also adopted controlled-logging of wood in our rainforests. It is our considered opinion that when our forests and other biodiversity hotspots are restored and protected, carbon will be assimilated, biodiversity enriched and air purified for our wellbeing.
“The signing of the Climate and Green Economy Bill today is therefore a sign of our renewed drive towards the Nature-Positive Strategy (NPS).
The Nature-Positive Strategy is a deliberate action of my administration to enhance the resilience of our forests by halting and reversing natural habitat loss; it is the foundation of our Green Economy,” he emphasized.
Speaking earlier, the speaker of the state house of assembly, Rt. Hon. Elvert Ayambem, appreciated the legislators for doing a great job by ensuring that relevant stakeholders were carried along in the cause of putting up the bill. He expressed satisfaction at the level of work done by members of the house, especially the house committee on environment, Hon. Ovat Agbor and members of his committee who worked tirelessly to ensure that a good job was done.
Cross River State apart from hosting the largest rainforest in the country, has become the first sub-national to set up such an important commission, deliberately taking measures to address the issue of climate change.
THINK CROSS RIVER Group
7th November, 2024
Calabar