By Victoria Agyemang
Cape Coast, June 7, GNA – The Central Regional branch of the Forestry Commission has exceeded its target of planting 600,000 trees Friday morning as part of the Green Ghana Day project.
The Region, as at 0800 hours, had distributed 750,000 trees before the exercise began on Friday.
The trees were distributed across the 23 Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) to ensure a greener region.
This year’s programme focuses on forest reserves, water estuaries, and other areas of importance.
Forest reserves will cover about 80 per cent of the target and the remaining 20 per cent will be planted in areas that are available for planting.
Mrs Justina Marigold Assan, the Central Regional Minister, planted the first symbolic ‘Tree of Life’ to officially commence the exercise, emphasising the importance of trees to mankind.
The Regional Police Command, the Ghana Journalists Association, and staff of the Regional Coordinating Council took turns planting trees after the Minister to show commitment and support for the exercise.
She encouraged the citizenry to plant and nurture the trees to ensure they grew to satisfaction to achieve the goal of preserving the environment and saving forest reserves.
All must cultivate the habit of planting trees to help restore the lost forests and water bodies to help safeguard the environment from the negative impacts of climate change.
The Minister expressed appreciation to the people for their continuous support and asked them to fully participate in the project to achieve its purpose.
Mr Samuel A. Jinapor, the Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, earlier in the year launched Green Ghana Day with a call on the citizenry to commit to planting and growing at least 10 million trees for a greener tomorrow for the survival of generations unborn.
He said the Government had been committed to an aggressive afforestation and reforestation programme, which had led to the cultivation of almost 721,000 hectares of forest between 2017 and 2023, under the Ghana Forest Plantation Strategy.
GNA