By P.K.Yankey
Anaji (W/R), June 07, GNA – Mrs. Mary Perpetua Kwakwuyi, the Executive Director of Goshen Global Vision (GGV), an environmentally focused non-government organisation, says plans are far advanced to plant 7,000 different trees in the Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolis (STMA) this year.
This will bring to 30,000 the total number of trees planted in the past three years in the STMA, under the Government of Ghana’s Greening Ghana project.
The Green Ghana Project, launched in 2021 by President Akufo-Addo, is a Government of Ghana project aimed restoring Ghana’s depleted forest cover and contributing to the global fight against climate change.
Mrs. Kwakwuyi said this at this year’s celebration of World Environment Day at the Anaji MA Junior High School, in the Western Region.
The theme for the celebration was: “Land Restoration, Desertification and Drug Resistance.”
About 300 trees made up of 10 tree species were planted by the students to serve as flowering tree cover, shade and bio-diversity restoration.
Mrs. Kwakwuyi said GGV had planted trees in about eight schools and continued to grow the trees by visiting the schools every three months to monitor their progress.
“After the planting, we give protection and ensure survival rate by introducing black soil to make sure the tree is standing,” Mrs. Kwakwuyi said.
She said after every three months they would visit the various schools, to measure together with the students, the height and diameter of the trees to observe their growth.
Mrs. Kwakwuyi said it was the aim of GGV together with stakeholders such as the Assembly, Traditional Rulers, NADMO and the Ghana Education Service to contribute to the mid-term development plan of the Assembly by replacing trees that have been cut down.
She said in the coming year, the GGV intends to revive the tree canopy and the greening that has been lost in Sekondi-Takoradi.
“Goshen Global Vision and other stakeholders want to come together to re-afforest and replant so that the biodiversity that we used to see and the erosion that has engulfed our schools will be restored,” she said.
Madam Glenda Nana Owu, the Headmistress of the Anaji MA Junior High School, expressed gratitude to GGV for the tree planting exercise in the school.
She acknowledged that the trees have beautified the place thereby creating a conducive and serene academic environment and pledged that the school would continue to nurture the trees to grow.
Mr. Henry Cofie, the Municipal NADMO Director at the Effia Kwesimintsim Municipal Assembly (EKMA), a speech read for him Madam Evelyn Vandyke by the Administrator at EKMA educated the pupils on the importance of trees to humanity.
He asked the school to plant more trees to guard against erosion and flooding.
Nana Ekua Awortwe II, Queen Mother of Anaji, underscored the importance of trees as they gave health and life to humanity and observed that the indiscriminate felling down of trees brought in its wake climate change and its attendant environmental hazards.
Nana Awortwe appealed to the school to join the crusade in planting trees as the trees gave protection to humanity.
As part of the celebration, the GGV donated cartons of soft drinks, bottled water and confectionaries to the school.
Earlier, the students flaunted placards with inscriptions such as “Plant More Trees to Protect the Environment”, “Be the Solution but Not the Pollution”, “Plant Trees for US Urban Forestry Project.”
GNA