Samuel Abu Jinapor
GOVERNMENT HAS targeted to plant at least twenty million trees across the country to mark this year’s Green Ghana Day.
Planting targets have been allocated to all 16 regions for this year’s Green Ghana Day, slated for June 10, 2022.
According to Samuel Abu Jinapor, Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, it is the expectation of government that, this year, “we will receive massive support from Ghanaians, foreigners, and corporate Ghana to sustain the momentum and enthusiasm generated from last year’s event.”
He continued that, “We have adopted a two-pronged strategy to achieve our target for this year. The first is to plant ten million seedlings in degraded forest reserves in compartments. We encourage Corporate Ghana and other organisations to adopt forest compartments for planting, and we will brand these compartments in the names of these organisations, and same can be reported, either as part of their corporate social responsibility or as offset for their carbon footprints.”
The minister said the remaining ten million seedlings will be planted outside forest reserves, particularly around farms, degraded watershed areas, boundaries, office compounds, and sites within communities, including parks, roadsides, homes, churches, mosques and schools.
Also, he said arrangements have been made for the supply and distribution of seedlings of various tree species across the country.
“The rate of deforestation and forest degradation is alarming, and there is the urgent need to continue the vigorous intervention to reverse this trend of depletion. Deforestation and forest degradation continue to be the greatest threats to sustainable natural resources management, and its dire consequences on lives and livelihoods.
“As we count down to the Green Ghana Day – June 10, 2022, we respectfully call on all and sundry to rally behind Government, the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources, the Forestry Commission and other partners and stakeholders to make the Green Ghana Day a resounding success. We have a collective responsibility as a people to leave future generations and their communities with richer, better and more valuable forests and wildlife endowment than we inherited,” he stated.
President Akufo-Addo, in 2021, launched the Green Ghana Project, as part of an aggressive afforestation and reforestation programme being embarked on by government. On March 1, 2022, he launched the 2022 edition of the Green Ghana Day under the theme “Mobilising for a Greener Future.”
Since 1900, Ghana has lost over eight million hectares of her forest cover, with almost one million hectares lost in the last few years. Globally, it is estimated that the world lost over ten million hectares of tropical forests in 2020 alone.
On the maiden edition of the Green Ghana Day, the President led the country to plant over seven million trees, exceeding the target of five million.