Samuel Abu Jinapor
The 2023 Edition of the Green Ghana Day will be held on Friday, June 9, 2023 under the theme ‘Our Forests, Our Health.’
The official launch of the Green Ghana Day will be done by the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, at the Great Hall of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Kumasi in May 2023.
Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Samuel Abu Jinapor, who disclosed this in Accra yesterday, appealed to residents to support his outfit to make this year’s Green Ghana Day a success.
“As we did last year, we have compartments for adoption by private institutions, and we will brand these compartments with their names and logos. And as always, seedlings will be made available here at the Ministry, the District Offices of the Forestry Commission, and at various designated locations, for collection on the Green Ghana Day. “Detailed schedule of the seedling distribution and pick-up points will be published in due course.
On the maiden edition, the minister said even though 5,000,000 trees were targeted, over 7,000,000 trees were planted.
“Last year, we raised our ambition and targeted at least, 20,000,000 trees. Again, you supported us, and over 24,000,000 trees were planted; bringing the total planted trees over the years to in excess of 31,000,000 trees.
“So far, field assessment report shows that, on the average, we have 72% survival rate last year as compared to eighty-one 81) in 2021. While adequate measures were put in place to ensure the survival of all trees planted, a number of external factors account for the survival rate, including rainfall patterns, wildfires and soil fertility,” he said.
The minister continued that his outfit has revised its target this year downwards to 10,000,000 trees indicating this will give it space to devote some resources and attention to the trees planted over the last two years, “while not losing momentum on our quest to restore our degraded landscape. It is the expectation of the government that, this year, we will receive the usual massive support to build upon the successes achieved in 2021 and 2022.”
By Samuel Boadi