The Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Mr Samuel Abu Jinapor, on Tuesday together with traditional authorities in the Northern Region launched the 2024 edition of the Green Ghana Day with the target to plant 10 million tree seedlings across the country.
The launch, on the theme: ‘Growing for a Greener Tomorrow,’ which is the 4th edition of the Green Ghana Day, formed part of the government’s aggressive afforestation and reforestation programme.
The Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Mr Samuel Abu Jinapor, launching the programme, said climate crisis was worsening day-by-day, hence the need for everyone to come onboard to cultivate the habit of planting more trees each day in their various institutions and homes.
He stated that the Green Ghana Project was one of the measures the government, under the leadership of President Akufo-Addo, adopted to curb the incessant degradation of the forests which had been ongoing for years without any conscious effort to replace them, and to contribute to the global fight against climate change.
“Available data shows that between 2010 and 2015 alone, the amount of forest our country lost, far exceeds the area of forest cultivated between 1963 and 2016, a whopping 53 years, which stands at 157,300 hectares,” he added.
He said since Akufo-Addo took office in 2017, as the President of Ghana, he had committed to an aggressive afforestation and reforestation programme, which had led to the cultivation of almost 721,000 hectares of forest between 2017 to 2023, under the Ghana Forest Plantation Strategy.
The minister commended the chiefs in northern Ghana for their efforts, in support of the protection of the forest cover of the Savannah zone, and the outright ban placed on all forms of tree-harvesting within Savannah Region by the Savannah Regional House of Chiefs.
He called on them to create and enhanced national awareness of the necessity for collective action towards restoration of degraded landscapes in the country, to inculcate values of “planting and nurturing of trees” among citizens, especially the younger generation to mitigate climate change and beautify communities and the environment.
Mr Jinapor said since the implementation of the project for past 3 years, they had planted about 42,000,000 trees across the country, in both on and off reserves, exceeding the targets they set for years.
The minister also appealed to the chiefs and people of northern Ghana, who could not achieve their targets last year, to come together to mobilise their people to ensure that this year, they exceed their targets.
He however commended the Ndan Ya-Na Mahama Abukari for the support he gave since the implementation of the Green Ghana Project.
The Overlord of Dagbon, Ndan Ya-Na Mahama Abukari, in a speech read on his behalf called on the people of Dagbon to support the government to sustain the Green Ghana Day Projects.
He said government could not do alone unless everyone come onboard to support it to yield a good results all the time, and appealed his sub chiefs to lead the charge by getting involved in the Green Ghana Project, to plant more tree in their traditional jurisdictions.
The Northern Regional Minister, Alhaji Shani Alhassan Sayibu, said greening Ghana could not be overstated as they faced environmental challenges such as climate change, deforestation and pollution.
FROM YAHAYA NUHU NADAA, TAMALE
