 The Nigerian Conservation Foundation has partnered with the banking sector to promote sustainability in tackling climate change crisis through tree planting and nurturing. Correspondent Imane Olibo-Bokun was at a lucky conservation center where the tree planting exercise now reports. Nigeria faces severe deforestation due to growing population and increasing demand for timber, full wood and agricultural land, with the highest global rate estimated at 3.7% annually. Its disrupt ecosystem balance, leading to civil erosion, bad diversity loss, climate change, carbon dioxide release, and negative impact on the local population by reducing assets to clean water and increasing flood risk. The Nigerian Conservation Foundation, NCF seeks to change this policy by partnering with the Bank to promote sustainability through tree planting. The director general of the foundation, Joseph Onoja, along with his partner, unlike the essence of the exercise, which they say is a necessity. It's not news, it's the kind of flooding that we are seeing, places that usually don't used to have rain, the place that sometimes we have in a place. We imagine the impact of that kind of activity on human, on social and economic loss that usually happens. So these are some of the things that we tell people that these are real and we need to come together. So whatever we are doing today is our own way, collaborating with corporate organizations, some responsible corporate organizations like Stambick IBTC to ensure that we play our part to be able to make the environment more conducive for us. And planting of these trees is one of those areas. Providing 30,000 units of trees to be planted in 10 states. The exercise being done here today is symbolic, but we are going to 10 states and the intention is to be able to create that value in terms of being climate sensitive and being able to provide the totality of the value chain that has to do with every tree that is being planted. Joseph Onoja also wants the government to intensify efforts at ensuring that the deforestation ceases in the states. We wonder why in a very short time they continue to have so much heat in the environment. That's because they've cleared down all the heat absorbers, all the things that are supposed to help in cushioning the effect of flooding because when it rains, there are no places, there are no habitat to be able to absorb the excess rain. We have concrete floors, everything. So when it rains, the amount of water that hits the ground is the same water that floods because there's no absorption. And there are no trees, trees to absorb. There are no green areas to absorb. So all of this contributes to what we are seeing. And that is why we are calling on the government and we continue to encourage them to implement those laws. There are very beautiful laws that can implement it. If we can implement those laws, then we will develop but we will not develop at a pace that will not be injurious to our well-being but we will develop at a pace that the environment will be able to continue to protect us. We have been creating awareness campaigns in this direction. It is an offence for anyone to fail a tree in the state without permission. If you fail a tree, if you must fail a tree, you must replace it with 10 trees planted. And in the case of big projects, you have to conduct environmental impact assessment. Whatever you destroy, you must prepare mitigative measures to alleviate it. Experts say Nigeria can reduce deforestation by promoting sustainable agriculture and forest practices, improving law enforcement and addressing corruption to protect the environment and society. Emmanuel Ulububukun, Plus TV News.