The Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, Samuel Abu Jinapor has expressed concerns over the rapid depletion of Ghana’s forest cover. According to him, the country over the past century had lost 80 percent (1,600,000) of its 8,200,000 hectares of forest cover to human activities. His concerns also come in the wake of global warming and its associated challenges being so prevalent.
The change in global conditions calls for rapid action to be taken and as a result, Mr Jinapor had begun a five-year Green Ghana Project, with the intention of planting 5 million trees to compensate for the lost vegetation, as well as to improve our oxygen level, store carbon, stabilise the soil and rejuvenate wildlife.
According to the Minister, the Green Ghana Project would have mainly economic trees planted and about 1.2 million students will be engaged in the exercise.
The Chronicle congratulates the Minister, who also is the Member of Parliament for Damongo, for the laudable idea. However, the paper is also extremely worried about the future of these trees that government is spending a lot of money to plant.
Our concern is based on the fact that there is a high level of disregard for the law protecting trees in the country. In Ghana trees are haphazardly felled without the recourse to the law. Meanwhile, per the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations, consent must be sought before a tree is logged, including those on private lands.
Unfortunately, this is not happening as commercial trees such as rosewoods and others are being harvested at alarming rate. In fact, the EPA in 2019 made a passionate appeal to the government to have the law on illegal logging tightened, but nothing has since been heard of that request.
The Chronicle is even wondering if the Ministry of Land and Natural Resources can provide data on the number of trees that have been planted over the past two decades and whether these trees are still surviving.
To assure the nation that we attach great importance to all the trees we are using the tax payers money to plant, one expects the government of the day to provide statistics on trees that have been planted in the past and how they are doing now, but this is not happening.
In our view, the data will help us as a country to know which tree species are near extinction and must, therefore, be replanted to ensure the diversity in our environment. While we congratulate the Minister for taking this giant step to green the country, we also believe same enthusiasm will be given to tightening of the loose ends of the law to protect the remaining trees, as well as those about to be planted.
The public must also take the exercise serious, as we are being warned by environmental activists that the Sahara Desert is fast approaching the country. We must, therefore, do our very best to have one or two trees planted in our homes, schools, churches, street avenues and communities among others.
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