LASPARK Urban Tree-Planting Programme — Legislated Reforestation & Tree-Survival Incentives in Lagos

Lagos, Africa's largest city (roughly 20 million residents), faces an intensifying urban heat island effect and flood risk as rapid urbanisation replaces green space with concrete and asphalt. Since 2009, the Lagos State Parks and Gardens Agency (LASPARK) has run an ongoing urban afforestation programme.
Officials report that partnerships between LASPARK, schools, communities, businesses and civil-society groups have planted more than 7 million trees since 2009, distributed as free seedlings from nurseries in Ikorodu and Agege through annual campaigns spanning all 57 Local Government Areas and Local Council Development Areas (for example, 13,401 of a 20,000-tree 2026 target had been planted by 30 June).
Lagos backs planting with law: anyone who illegally fells a tree must replant five in its place. In June 2026, on World Environment Day, the state launched "Me and My Tree," offering free seedlings and a ₦2.5 million prize to the resident whose tree survives best after one year — an attempt to move beyond planting counts toward verified survival.
Independent, third-party verification of the cumulative 7-million-tree figure, canopy-cover change, or systematic survival-rate tracking (unlike, for example, Freetown's digitally tracked reforestation) is not publicly documented; the figures and the "Me and My Tree" scheme rely on state government reporting.

Read the full analysis: https://www.pulse.ng/story/lagos-n2-5m-tree-planting-prize-2026060809505421945