Last year, precisely on June 11, 2021, the minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Samuel Abu Jinapor, launched the Green Ghana Programme aspart of activities to mark last year’s International Day of Forest.
According to the minister, Under the Green Ghana initiative, a total of five million trees are expected to be planted in a single day across Ghana.
This year, the ministry has increased the number of trees to be planted from five million last year to 20 million and the exercise is set to be launched today.
Good decision one will say, especially looking at the objective of the programme.
An analysis of satellite data published in 2019 by U.S.-based World Resource Institute (WRI), found Ghana experienced the biggest relative increase in primary forest loss of all tropical countries in 2018. According to the report, the loss of Ghana’s primary forest cover jumped 60 percent from 2017 to 2018 – almost entirely from its protected areas.
The report of WRI, concluded that deforestation of Ghana’s primary forests jumped 60 percent between 2017 and 2018 – the biggest jump of any tropical country. Most of this occurred in the country’s protected areas, including its forest reserves.
Ghana from 1956, when we gained Independence, has lost over 70 percent of its forest cover due to deforestation and habitat degrading activities like illegal mining, forest clearance for farmlands, logging and unsustainable land-use practices.
All is not doom and gloom as the government through the effort of the minister of Lands and Natural Resources, is offering a way out of this problem by the introduction of the Green Ghana Initiative.
While, the ministry is doing what it can do to preserve and protect the environment, this newspaper calls on all Ghanaians in their respective capacities to support and take part in the tree planting exercise to help rehabilitate the forest estates.
