The government has set a target of planting of 20 million trees nationwide under the Green Ghana initiative next year, Deputy Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Mr Benito Owusu-Bio, has said.
He explained the initiative, being championed by the Forestry Commission and the Ministry, was expected to increase the initial seven million trees planted this year through the supply of free seedlings to individuals and institutions for the planting.
The Deputy Minister said this yesterday at the inauguration of a nine-member Forestry Plantation Development Fund Management Board in Accra.
Mr Owusu-Bio said currently, the focus of the ministry was to embark on a vigorous afforestation drive to protect and re-grow the country’s lost forests and curb the impacts of climate change.
He said the Forestry Plantation Development Fund Management Board Act was enacted in the year 2000 and amended in 2002, to enable plantation growers in both the public and private sectors to participate in forest plantation development.
Mr Owusu-Bio said main sources of the fund were levies imposed on the export of air-dried lumber, stressing “the idea behind the levy was to promote the export of kiln-dried lumber, which attracts more foreign exchange earnings than air-dried lumber.”
The Chairman of the Board, Nana Osei Yaw Berima, said the fight against the destruction of the country’s forest, mainly through illegal timber felling and illegal mining activities, continued to be more difficult to manage.
He suggested that the most prudent option to fight this menace was to have a vigorous plantation development agenda.
“However, sustaining vigorous plantation programmes has not been achieved either. The reasons are not far-fetched as it has been extremely financially burdensome for all past governments to implement tough plantation programmes. Reason being the high cost of funding involved, which is also increasing by the year,” Nana Berima said.
Other members of the board are Professor Patrick Kwabla Agbesinyale, Mr Benson Oduro, Mr Emmanuel Marfo and Andrew Adjei-Yeboah.
The rest are Mr Alhassan Yakubu Tal, Mr Alex Oppong, Mr Abu Jaja Seidu and Tennyson Agbakini.
BY BERNARD BENGHAN