The Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources has targeted the planting of 10 million trees nationwide during this year’s Green Ghana Day.
Slated for June 9, the exercise which will be held on the theme, “Our Forests, Our Health”, would be funded with a GH¢2.5 million allocation from government and donations from individuals, corporate groups and organisations.
This year’s target is 10 million short of the 2022 target, which was set at 20 million.
Explaining the rationale for the reduction at a press conference in Accra yesterday, Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Mr Samuel A. Jinapor, said the move was to enable the Ministry commit more resources and efforts into nurturing trees planted within the past two years.
He noted that the past two editions saw the planting of 31 million trees across the country which included an excess of six million of the targeted number.
So far, the Minister said field assessment report showed that on the average last year, there was a 72 per cent survival rate as compared to 81 per cent in 2021.
“It is for this reason that this year, we have revised our target downwards to10 million trees. This will give us 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,” he stated.
Mr Jinapor said although adequate measures were put in place to ensure the survival of all trees planted, some external factors including rainfall patterns, wildfires and soil fertility accounted for the survival rate recorded.
He indicated that the survival rate showed that there were about 23 million trees nationwide to be nurtured.
The launch of this year’s Green Ghana Day, the Minister noted that would be done by the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in Kumasi next month.
As was done last year, he said the Ministry has developed compartments for adoption by private institutions saying that any organisation that adopt a compartments would have it branded with their names and logos.
Mr Jinapor said the seedlings would be made available at the Ministry, District Offices of the Forestry Commission, and at various designated locations for collection on the Green Ghana Day.
To ensure a smooth exercise, he added that a detailed schedule of the seedling distribution and pick-up points would be published days ahead of the exercise.
He said the government was in expectation that all Ghanaians and residents in the country would support the Ministry to achieve the same successes recorded in 2021 and 2022.
“I appeal to all Ghanaians and residents of Ghana, chiefs and queen-mothers, religious and faith-based organisations, ministers, parliamentarians, judges, public servants, civil servants, doctors, teachers, lawyers, nurses, private sector organisations, Civil Society Organisations, students, Members of the Diplomatic Corps and development partners to support the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources to make this year’s Green Ghana Day a success,” the Minister noted.
The Green Ghana Day initiative was introduced in 2021 by the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources to create a collective action towards restoration of degraded landscapes in the country, mitigate climate change and inculcate in the youth the values of planting and nurturing trees and their associated benefits.
The initiative was to drive efforts towards an aggressive afforestation programme to restore the lost forest cover of Ghana which contributes to the global efforts to fight climate change.
BY CLAUDE NYARKO ADAMS
