The Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Samuel A. Jinapor has appealed to Ghanaians to see the Green Ghana Project, which comes on tomorrow as a national issue that must be divorced from politics.
He has, therefore, commended Ex-President John Dramani Mahama for accepting to join the tree planting exercise tomorrow.
“We have a serious crises on our hands and we must come together to make this work. The point where we are required that we stop global warming or else within a short time we will soon live in an unsustainable globe and this will impact negatively on our agriculture and everything that the weather affects.”
The Minister was speaking on Asaase Radio on Wednesday, this week, to promote the Green Ghana and other matters regarding the planting exercise and how it affects the environment.
The Minister explained a two-pronged approach that has been adopted by the government to achieve this agenda, while encouraging all and sundry to focus more on the growth of the plant and not just the plating.
“The biggest scheme does not have to do with the planting itself, but the survival rate and so we should not only plant, that we also have to focus on the nurturing and growth of the trees we plant.”
He continued that with a good number of lessons learnt from last year’s exercise, better strategies have been put in place to achieve the ambitious target of 20 million tree seedlings.
The sector minister said all 20 million seedlings are ready to be planted, while disclosing some of the pick up points for the seedlings and gave out contacts people can call to know where to go for their seedlings.
“You can pick up your seedlings from the various offices of the Forestry Commission, District Assemblies, Malls and on the streets, and the numbers to call are 0244643780, 0249227796 and 0208290797.
He also mentioned some of the seedlings available for planting, saying we have coconut, mango, avocado/pear, tangerine, orange and ornamental plants, just to mention a few.”
He revealed that the President will start the tree planting at the Efua Sutherland Children’s Park and others will follow, naming Vice President Dr Bawumia, Ex-president Kufuor, Ex-President John Mahama, The Clergy, Traditional leaders and the Chief Imam among other key personalities.
The Minister further stated that as the Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, he will be planting with the British High Commission and British citizens at the Achimota Forest and by this, he reiterated that “we are fully, fully committed to protecting the Achimota Forest.
“The thing about Achimota forest is that we have invested so much in the forest and we can’t afford to lose all that and, therefore, we are willing to restore all that with your help,” he added.
“And then there is a second strategy which is engaging in aggressive afforestation/reforestation which is what has brought about Green Ghana Day, which we targeted last year to plant 5 million seedlings we ended up planting 7 million seedlings.
“The report I have is that 80% of those seedlings we planted have survived and we are hopeful to get better results this year.”
