Accra, June 9, GNA – The much-awaited Green Ghana Day is today, Friday, June 9, 2023, across the country to plant 10 million seedlings.
The Green Ghana Day was launched by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo in 2021 under the auspices of the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources, as part of an aggressive afforestation and reforestation agenda of the government.
The initiative is intended to restore the lost forest cover of the country devastated by illegal small-scale mining and timber logging.
The maiden edition targeted to plant five million trees, but ended up planting over seven million seedlings.
In 2022, more than 26 million trees were planted, exceeding the 20 million target.
The Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II officially launched this year’s edition of the Green Ghana Day on Wednesday, May 17 at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, urging all well-meaning Ghanaians to support the tree planting exercise.
The revered King said the Day presented an opportunity for Ghanaians to show patriotism and commitment towards protecting the country’s forest cover and leave the younger generation much richer and greener in Ghana.
“Government cannot do it alone. We must all get involved and support the Government to come to grips with these matters,” Otumfuo Osei Tutu said.
The Asantehene pledged to lead his chiefs and people to plant 2.5 million trees to protect the enclave of Lake Bosomtwe in the Bosomtwe District of the Region.
The Government since 2017 has been taking several measures to restore the country’s lost forest cover, hence the Green Ghana Project is a necessary intervention to create national awareness of the necessity for collective action towards the restoration of the degraded landscapes.
The programme also aims at inculcating values of planting and nurturing trees in the citizens, particularly among the younger generation, to mitigate the negative effects of climate change as well as beautifying the environment.
Averagely, more than 81 per cent of the seedlings planted in 2021 survived while 72 per cent survived in 2022.
GNA