Pupils and students of Haut-Kam and Moungo Divisions in the West and Littoral Regions of Cameroon have been advised to make tree planting a culture.

“When you plant trees around your school campus, you will have more oxygen on campus that contribute in increasing your level of understanding in class” Mm Junie Chamjou, the Environment and Rural Development Foundation (ERuDeF)’s Agroforestry Coordinator for West and Littoral Regions told students and pupils in École Publique de Bakassa in the Haut-Kam Division of the West Region and Lycée Classique de Mellong II in the Moungo Division of Littoral Region.

She encouraged each learner to plant a tree monitor to ensure its survival. The students were also called upon to sensitising their parents one some agroforestry practises like alley cropping, contour farming and life fencing.

“When you get home, tell your parents the importance of trees and advise them to plant more trees especially around your houses and in the farms,” Junie added.

For their part, the pupils and students expressed total satisfaction being schooled on lessons of nature. Most of them resolved to plant as many trees as they can when theywill have the seedlings.

“I am so grateful being part of this lecture on environment. At first, I did not know how to plant trees, but from the lessons got and with the demonstrations, I can now plant my own trees. As soon as I get home, I shall plant my first tree,” Tientcheu Noelle, a pupil of École Publique de Bakassa said.

The learners also pledged to follow-up with the planting of trees in and around the school so they can beautify the campus.

“If you look round our school, you cannot find so many trees. With this lesson acquired from the environment education talk, I shall join with my fellow students to plant more trees around the school boundary, and fruit trees on campus. In that way, we shall have a lot to eat when the time comes,” Douanla Romauald, a student of LycéeClassique de Mellong II said.

For their part, the school administration were very impressed with the lectures given the students, but were even more elated by the positive reactions of the learners. They promised to continue preaching the message of planting trees, so the learners can actually make it part of their daily lives.

“We have been teaching our learners on the importance of having a good environment, but I must confess that we have never had such enthusiasm from the students on issues of the environment. We shall continue to pass on the message to the students until they all understand the importance of planting trees” said Mme Kamguim Climentine, Principal of Lycée Classique de Mellong II.

The learners were treated to demonstrations on nursing seeds, transplanting, and planting of trees.

Meanwhile, pupils of École Pubique de Bakassa, appealed for the creation of a school garden.

The project falls inline with Trees for the Future’s objectives, that is, to integrate 8 million agroforestry species in farms, water catchments and around school campuses. The West and Littoral Regions had some 2.1 million seeds of acacia, luceana, calliandra, prunus and moringaseeds distributed to the different entities in the month of March 2017. The project is being implemented by the Environment and RuralDevelopment Foundation (ERuDeF).