The Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Samuel Abu Jinapor, has reported to Parliament that 80 per cent of trees planted under the Green Ghana Project in 2021 are doing well.
“The seedlings planted are doing very well and surviving. Indeed the last report I got was that 80 per cent of them are doing well,” he told Parliament in Accra, yesterday.
Answering a question on how many seedlings government has planted to support its afforestation project, Mr Jinapor, who is the Member of Parliament (MP) for Damango, said government would continue to do what it could to ensure the trees survived.
He said government faced challenges in accounting for the trees because “considerable number” of the trees were planted by individuals and that their survival rate could not be tracked.
Of the 7,193,424 seedlings earmarked for planting last year, 4,897,247 were planted, Mr Jinapor said.
The government of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, the minister said remained committed to an aggressive afforestation and reforestation programme, to restore the country’s lost forest cover.
He indicated that “As a result, between 2017 and the end of the third quarter of 2021, a total of 477,485 hectares of forest have been cultivated under the Ghana Forest Plantation Strategy through various programmes undertaken by government, the private sector and Civil Society Organisations.
Mr Jinapor said ” between 2017 and the third quarter of 2021, 67,376,384 seedlings were procured by the Forestry Commission for planting within degraded forests”.
He said the seedlings were planted under two programmes – the Modified Taungya System and Youth in Afforestation.
The breakdown of the 67.3 million seedlings, was 7,138,553 in 2017; 17,869,408 in 2018; 19,486,537 in 2019; 13,405,710 in 2020 and 9,476,176 for the third quarter of 2021.
Mr Jinapor said government would embark on an ambitious tree planting programme, beginning this year, to make for the lost vegetation cover over the years.
In this regard, he said, President Akufo-Addo on Tuesday, March 1, launched the 2022 edition of the Green Ghana Day, which has been slated for June 10.
Mr Jinapor said “On that day, we commit to plant at least 20 million trees and will include planting on degraded forest lands both on and off reserves.
“Take this opportunity to, respectfully call on you and the House to support us on the Green Ghana Day to build a greener future for our country”
BY JULIUS YAO PETETSI
