The Bole District Forestry Division is seeking the support of chiefs and other stakeholders in the Bole Traditional Area towards the Green Ghana project to ensure a successful planting of trees across the country.
Mr Sumaila Rafiu, Bole District Manager of the division, who led a team of staff and security officers to pay a courtesy call on the Paramount Chief of the Bole Traditional Area to seek his support towards the project, appealed to traditional authorities in the Region to impress on their people to embrace tree planting to protect the environment.
The courtesy call on the Chief formed part of efforts by the forestry division to create awareness among members of the public about the government’s Green Ghana project, where ten million trees are expected to be planted across the country on June 09,2033.
The Green Ghana project forms part of efforts by the government to preserve the country’s environment.
Practices such as illegal logging in high proportions, mining in forest reserves and pollution of water bodies had resulted in a reduction in trees and vegetation cover and the degradation of the country’s environment hence the project.
As part of the project in the Bole District Forest Division, 400,000 seedlings including mahogany, acacia, teak and cashew have been nursed and would be distributed to faith-based organisations, institutions and individuals to plant across the District today.
Mr Rafiu spoke about the significance of planting trees, saying “if we grow a tree, we contribute to our survival and poverty reduction,” and appealed to traditional authorities to help change the behaviour of their people towards tree planting.
He emphasised that “People can plant trees for economic purposes. We need the vegetation in the Savannah for our survival. Let us take care of the trees when we plant them to survive”.
He called on residents to support the project towards reducing deforestation, contributing towards the reduction of carbon emissions, which have repercussions for our existence as human beings. So, everyone must join this exercise so that we begin to repair our environment”.
Speaking on behalf of Bolewura, Mankumawura Iddrisu Dramani lauded the Green Ghana project, saying it would revive the country’s vegetative cover and called for the engagement of the right stakeholders to plant the trees to ensure success.
He said there was a need to secure the livelihoods of the people by securing forests, hence the significance of the project.
Mankumawura gave assurance that all stakeholders would be involved in the tree planting exercise to enable them to own the project to ensure success.
The Green Ghana Day initiative was introduced in 2021 by the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources to create a collective action towards restoration of degraded landscapes in the country, mitigate climate change and inculcate in the youth the values of planting and nurturing trees and their associated benefits.
The initiative was to drive efforts towards an aggressive afforestation programme to restore the lost forest cover of Ghana which contributes to the global efforts to fight climate change.
Source: yagbonradioonline
