The Ghana Police Service, as part of efforts to restore the fast disappearing forest cover of the country, has committed to plant 5,000 trees at its training schools, regional headquarters, divisional, district stations, posts and depots across the country.
This was disclosed by the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mr James Oppong-Boanuh, when he was joined by his management team to plant 50 coconut seedlings at the Police Training School at Tesano in Accra.
Addressing a short ceremony to mark the planting of the trees on Friday, June 11, 2021 the IGP said to ensure survival and protection of the trees, a monitoring team will be set up to monitor its development.
He said all hands are need on deck for the vision of the government to prevent further destruction of the environment, in order for the country to gain its lost vegetation.
Mr Oppong-Boanuh encouraged all and sundry to plant trees in support of the campaign.
Central region
Meanwhile Naabenyin Joojo Amissah reports from Cape Coast that the Central Regional Minister, Mrs Justina Marigold Assan has made a passionate appeal to the people of the region to embrace the “Green Ghana Project” to mitigate the impact of climate change.
In her view, the project, which concentrates on tree planting would reduce the rate at which harmful carbon dioxide gets into the atmosphere and also give protection to the vegetative cover of the region and the country at large.
In a brief statement to kick-start the tree planting exercise at the Regional Coordinating Council, in Cape Coast, on Friday, she mentioned that a large chunk of the country’s forest reserves have been destroyed through human activities, with illegal mining being the worst culprit.
This wanton destruction, she noted, has led to Ghana experiencing the impact of climate change, which has adversely affected the rainfall pattern of the country.
She, therefore, urged the citizenry to see the protection of the natural environment as a shared responsibility and give their immense support to the president’s “Green Ghana Project” to make it a success.
“We are appealing to everyone to get involved and plant some trees. Even if it is on your farm, garden or compound, my appeal is that we should try to plant some trees and also nurture them to grow”, she said.
Mrs Assan urged the people to see every single seedling collected and planted as their individual properties and provide them with adequate protection and care that would ensure their [seedlings] survival.
She further expressed her total commitment to ensuring that the Central Region would be on top of the league of other regions as far as the president’s vision to make Ghana green was concerned.
Mrs Assan later joined the Vice Chancellor of the University of Cape Coast, Professor Johnson Nyarko Boampong, to plant about five hundred and fifty different species of seedlings.
Prof Boampong explained that government’s quest to plant trees under the “Green Ghana Project” was in line with his vision to ensure that the university was made “green” to support academic work.
He further explained that the university has received about 30,000 species of economic trees from the Forestry Commission, while the university, through its “Grounds and Gardens”, has nursed about 50,000 seedlings.
He further assured that the planted seedlings would be constantly monitored to ensure their survival.
Overview of the exercise in the region
As far as the activities of the Forestry Commission are concerned, the Central Region has been zoned into four operational districts, namely Cape Coast, Winneba, Dunkwa and AssinFoso.
Briefing The Chronicle, the deputy regional manager of the Forest Commission, Mr Lawrence Fosu, explained that the region was initially given a total of Four Hundred Thousand seedlings. He indicated that due to interest shown by the citizenry, it was increased to Five Hundred Seventy-Six Thousand, Seven Hundred and Ninety-Five made up of Mohogany, Cedrela, Oframo, Emeri as well as oil palm and coconut seedlings among others.
According to Mr Fosu, the Cape Coast District received a total of 178,600, Dunkwa District was given 128,195 while Assin Foso and the Winneba Districts received 150,000 and 120,000 seedlings respectively.
Manager Lawrence Fosu indicated that office has the details of each and every individual who was given the seedlings in their data base and would use the information to monitor the progress of the exercise. “We also picked the Global Positioning System GPS Coordinates of all sites where the plantings have been to enable us to visit frequently and monitor and offer professional advice to ensure the survival of the plants,” he added
Bono Region
Correspondent Francis Owusu-Ansah also reports from Sunyani that the Bono Regional Minister, Madam Justina Owusu Banahene, has observed that the wanton destruction of the country’s forest over the years has led to serious depletion of the forest cover and encouraged everyone to take the appropriate action to prevent the loss of the forest cover.
“We have over the years destroyed the country’s forest cover and it is time for us to take the appropriate actions to prevent the loss of the forest cover or collectively we will suffer the consequences”, she said.
The regional minister noted that the active involvement of Ghanaians, especially in the forest fringe communities, is critical to the fight to end the wanton destruction of the reserves and therefore appealed to all Ghanaians to take advantage of the tree planting initiative to plant a tree to green the environment.
Madam Owusu Banahene was speaking at the Bono Regional edition of the Green Ghana Day programme held in Sunyani, which is a national effort at planting more than five million trees as part of efforts to preserve and protect the country’s forest cover and the environment at large.
According to Madam Owusu Banahene there is the need for all hands to be on deck to protect the nation’s forest reserves for posterity, especially the indigenous plants and animals.“There is the need for all hands to be on deck to safeguard the country’s forest reserves for future generations”, she said adding “the forest is a valuable national asset that should not be destroyed through the greed and selfishness of few individuals, hence the urgent need for systematic efforts to green the environment”.
Madam Owusu-Banahene said that thousands of seedlings made up of different tree species have been distributed to all the 12 municipal and district assemblies in the region through the Forestry Commission for further distribution to individual Ghanaians and organizations for the purposes of planting to green Ghana.
The Forestry Commission in the Bono and Ahafo regions was expected to plant more than 420,000 seedlings on Friday day, under the Green Ghana initiative.The Bono Region, which is made up of 12 districts, was expected to plant a total of 250,000 seedlings, while the Ahafo Region consisting of six districts, was also expected to plant 170,000 seedlings on the day.
Under the Green Ghana initiative, the country was expected to plant five million trees on June 11, 2021, as part of efforts to re-Green Ghana and protect the country’s forest reserves.According to the commission, thousands of seedlings made up of mahogany, teak and acacia among other different tree species have been distributed to the various proposed planting sites across the regions.
In a related development, members of the Sunyani area of the Church of Pentecost on Friday planted 15,000 trees in 31 districts in Sunyani Municipality.
The Sunyani area Head, Apostle Mark Obeng Andoh, said the Church had already begun planting trees nationwide, even before the Green Ghana Project.
The Church, under the leadership of Apostle Eric Nyamekye, decided to embark on the nationwide project to plant one million trees, he said, citing the need to care for earth as the main motivation for its project.
He indicated that the church, as part of its strategic vision of possessing the nation, dubbed “Vision 2023”, introduced the Environmental Care Campaign to take care of the environmental needs of the country.
“Leadership considerably decided that one million trees be planted nationwide as part of the campaign”, the apostle said and explained that the rationale behind the project is that there is the need to safeguard the country’s forest cover.
Apostle Obeng Andoh stressed that for an effective, concise and sustainable exercise aimed at planting seedlings and ensuring their growth, the Sunyani church decided to plant 15,000 trees in Sunyani.
He said the planting of 15,000 trees formed part of the ambitious initiative of the church in line with the Greening Ghana Project of the government to plant five million trees.
Read Full Story
Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest
Instagram
Google+
YouTube
LinkedIn
RSS