Accra, June 11, GNA – Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum, the Minister of Education, Friday led the management of St Mary’s Basic School at Korle Gonno to plant trees as part of government’s Green Ghana Initiative to preserve the vegetative cover.
The initiative, spearheaded by the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources and the Forestry Commission is expected to plant five million trees across the country.
It is also aligned with the Ghana Forest Plantation Strategy (2016-2040) and government’s commitment to various international agreements, including the Sustainable Development Goals, the African Landscape Restoration Initiative and the Bonn Challenge.
The Minister said the programme was a great moment for the country to collectively plant trees to safeguard the environment and urged students to learn more about the importance of trees to protect them from destruction.
He urged the management of the school to continually water the seedlings to grow well, saying, “I will personally come from time to time to check on the state of the trees.”
Dr Adutwum said the Forestry Commission had embarked on a programme to provide seedlings to schools across the country to encourage students to embrace the initiative and have a positive attitude towards vegetation.
The Minister said the motivation to plant five million trees in Ghana formed part of a strategy and a programme to embark on an aggressive afforestation to protect forests and the environment in Ghana.
He said the initiative was a joint responsibility for which more broad-based support was needed to address the adverse degradation of Ghana’s forests and ecosystem.
GNA