Green Ghana patronage high - President Akufo-Addo calls for more commitment
Ghanaians on Friday took another giant step towards restoring the country’s degraded landscape by planting 10 million trees in an exercise labelled Green Ghana Day.
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The tree planting exercise which was carried out across the country received patronage from high profile personalities, the diplomatic community, organisations, companies, religious bodies, state and non-state institutions.
The third in three years, Friday’s event brings to 43 million the number of trees that have been planted since the initiative was first held on June 11, 2021, with a post-planting monitoring survey putting the average tree survival rate at 71 per cent or 23 million trees planted during the previous two editions.
In the first edition in 2021, seven million trees were planted, while 26 million trees were planted in 2022.
Leadership
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo led the country in the tree-planting exercise at the University of Ghana in the Greater Accra Region, where he was joined by the Minister of Lands and Natural Resources (MLNR), Samuel Abu Jinapor, the Greater Accra Regional Minister, Henry Quartey, and other personalities who were hosted by the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ghana, Professor Nana Aba Appiah Amfo.
The President planted a tree to symbolically start the exercise just after 11 a.m.
He planted Velvet Tamarind, known locally as ‘yooyi” by the Gas, atsitoe by the Ees and ‘Asamba’ by Fantes, at the event which was on the theme “Mobilising for a Greener Future.”
The legislative arm of government also actively participated in the national exercise, with the Speaker of Parliament, Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin, leading legislators and staff of the Parliamentary Service to plant trees at the premises of the House.
At the Nationalism Park in Accra, the Minister of Local Government, Decentralisation and Development, led the charge in planting trees, while his counterpart from the Chieftaincy and Religious Affairs Ministry organised a similar event at the Greater Accra Regional House of Chiefs at Dodowa.
Other state agencies and institutions, including the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE), the Chief of Defence Staff, Vice Admiral Seth Amoama, and the Diplomatic community all joined at separate events to plant trees to mark the day.
The Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, joined the Deputy Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Benito Owusu Bio, and the Ashanti Regional Minister, Simon Osei-Mensah, in Kumasi, while the Omanhene of the New Juaben Traditional Area, Daasebre Kwaku Boateng III, also joined the Eastern Regional Minister, Seth Kwame Acheampong, to plant trees in Koforidua.
The President of the Upper East Regional House of Chiefs, Pe Ditundini Adiali Ayagitam II, also joined the Upper East Regional Minster, Stephen Yakubu, and other dignitaries to plant trees at Bolgatanga.
Diplomatic corps
Also, there was more action at the Seismic Centre at Achimota, near the Forestry Commission headquarters, where members of the diplomatic corps converged to plant trees in solidarity with Ghana.
Some of the diplomats who planted trees were the Zimbabwean Ambassador, Kufa E. Chinoza; the Consul and Head of Administration at the Embassy of Israel, Ortal Popoviz Alkelai; the Deputy Head of the European Union (EU) delegation to Ghana, Pieter Smidt Van Gelder; and the Lebanese Ambassador, Maher Kheir.
Other diplomats from the embassies of Morocco, Nigeria, Italy, United Kingdom, Germany, Pakistan, Australia, Ethiopia, Algeria, Spain and Barbados also participated in the exercise to plant trees.
They were joined by the members of the Forestry Commission Board as well as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the commission, John Allotey.
Prioritising Green Ghana
Speaking ahead of planting a tree, President Akufo-Addo underscored the need for all citizens and residents in the country to play active roles in preserving the forest.
“We must do this with a sense of urgency and renewed purpose, noting that the success depends on our collective action,” he stated.
The President stressed the importance of all stakeholders focusing on tackling the drivers of forest degradation to mitigate its impact on climate change, health and the economy.
President Akufo-Addo said the Green Ghana project was crucial to delivering Ghana’s commitment to climate action, both in its nationally determined contributions and to the international community.
“We have a history of leading the charge when the need arises and our climate actions cannot be different. We must continue to work together to ensure that our contribution to climate solution is positive, transformative and sustainable,” he added.
The President said he was proud of the successes chalked up over the first two years of implementation of the Green Ghana project and that it was important that the target was reviewed down this year to devote some time and resources to nursing the over 23 million trees that had survived over the past two years.
“Today, we have another opportunity to reaffirm our commitment to saving planet earth and protecting our livelihoods,” he urged.
Touching on how the country had taken concrete steps to mitigate the effect of the global warming and ensure that its actions did not negatively affect the planet, President Akufo-Addo said the country continued to adopt and implement policies aimed at addressing climate change.
He said even though the country’s contribution was minimal it recognised that this global crisis required collective, ambitious and meaningful efforts from all countries.
Ghana’s action
President Akufo-Addo said Ghana had committed under its Enhanced Nationally Determined Contributions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by some 64 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent by 2030.
“These bold and ambitious targets reflect our vision of becoming a low-carbon climate-resilient economy. Since most of our emissions come from land use chain, achieving these targets require taking urgent steps to address the drivers of deforestation and forest degradation,” he added.
Tree per student
President Akufo-Addo commended the MLNR for instituting the One-student, One-tree initiative, in line with the Green Ghana project, through which, he said, the nation could inculcate the culture in the youth and hopefully jettison the culture of impunity that led to the destruction of forests.
For her part, Prof. Amfo described the Green Ghana initiative as visionary because it would ensure that the vegetation cover of the country was protected.
She noted that the adverse effect of climate change on food systems and humanity in general underscored the need to take tree-planting seriously as that was the surest way of restoring degraded forests.
"I want to commend the President for initiating this laudable national project to safeguard our environment. The efforts by the Lands and Natural Resources Ministry and the Forestry Commission in ensuring that the two previous editions of the Green Ghana Day achieve the desired impact is very commendable," Prof. Amfo added.
Diplomatic endorsement
When he joined the diplomatic community to plant trees at the seismic centre, Mr Jinapor said the Green Ghana project was crucial to the restoration of the country’s degraded landscape and climate action, for which reason all stakeholders must help to sustain it.
He commended the diplomats for showing solidarity with the country in the national efforts to breathe a new lease of life towards the forest and vegetation.
The Dean of the Diplomatic Corps and Lebanese Ambassador commended the government for instituting the Green Ghana initiative to aggressively plant trees.
Mr Kheir described the Green Ghana initiative as a major policy that would contribute immensely to saving the environment and the planet.
Trees were important to human survival for which reason every step must be taken to protect the forest, he said, and stressed that efforts must be made to tackle the triggers of deforestation.
"We cannot ignore the link between our forests and our health. We must promote reforestation and restoration programmes to protect existing forests while tackling triggers of deforestation,” he said.
Sustainability
The Minister of State at the Ministry of Local Government, Decentralisation and Rural Development, O. B. Amoah, who led the tree-planting exercise at the Nationalism Park at the Black Star Square, challenged the metropolitan, municipal and districts assemblies (MMDAs) to focus more on sustaining the trees rather than just planting them.
He said the MMDAs could not deliver on their mandate of ensuring development at the local level if their environment and water resources were polluted and their forests were dead.
“Since the launch of the Green Ghana initiative by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo in 2021, many people have wondered if the trees planted actually do grow. Thankfully, the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources and the Forestry Commission have confirmed that at least over 70 per cent of what they have been doing are still thriving in which case we should be aiming higher than that,” he said.
Mr Amoah said as the parent ministry of the MMDAs and the Department of Parks and Gardens, the Local Government ministry had put in place a number of measures to ensure constant supervision of the trees planted under the Green Ghana project.
Otumfuo plants
From Kumasi in the Ashanti Region, Kwadwo Baffoe Donkor reports that the Asantehene took part in the exercise to plant 2.1 million trees across the region.
The Regional Minister, Mr Osei-Mensah, warned residents who reared animals to keep them in their habitats to prevent them from roaming the streets to destroy the planted seedlings.
He said the Regional Coordinating Council had begun a process of beautifying the city by planting royal palms in the median of the main streets.
However, the regional minister said, some stray animals had been chewing the trees, thus defeating the purpose.
For his part, Mr Bio entreated all to take care of the trees and nurture them to grow well.
He said it was the collective responsibility of all to ensure that the trees grew well, adding, “We all stand to benefit from them.”