Our tree, our lives: The importance of Green Ghana Day

"When the last tree dies, the last man dies." This saying is quite popular around the world but little consideration is usually given to spirit and true meaning of the statement. Trees can be termed as one of the life dependents of man, and without trees it is doubtful that man will be able to survive even for a second on the environment and therefore to prevent this quote from manifesting in our current dispensation and to contribute to the global efforts to fight climate change, Government through the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources initiated the Green Ghana Day in 2021, as an aggressive afforestation/reafforestation programme geared towards planting trees to restore Ghana’s lost forest cover.

In the first year of implementation, the Green Ghana Day, saw the planting of 7 million tree seedlings from an initial target of 5 million, with the objectives to; Create Enhanced National Awareness of The Necessity for Collective Action Towards Restoration of Degraded Landscape In The Country, Inculcate The Values of Planting and Nurturing Trees And Its Associated Benefits In The Youth, Mitigate Climate Change, Enhance Livelihoods For Rural Communities Through Their Engagement In The Production Of Tree Seedlings and to Beautify Our Communities And Environment. Some of the tree seedlings planted during the 2021 planting exercise include, royal palm, coconut, pawpaw, and assorted types of ornamental plants.

Premised on the success of the first edition, the 2022 edition of the Green Ghana day was launched on 1st March 2022 by the President of the Republic under the theme; “Mobilizing for a Greener Future” with an ambitious target of 20 million tree seedlings. With knowledge that the 20 million seedlings will need more hands and a lot of efforts to pull it off, the Ministry employed a two pronged strategy to execute it. The first strategy was to plant 10 million trees in degraded Forest Reserve compartments across the country.

Various organizations were given the chance to adopt some of these compartments in degraded lands and branded in their name after planting. The second strategy saw the planting of the other 10 million tree seedlings within farms and around farm boundaries, along degraded watershed areas and within communities, in road medians and avenues, on compounds of homes, schools, churches, offices and within recreational grounds.

Also in efforts to meet the ambitious target of 20 million, the tree seedlings were fairly distributed based on the sizes and capacity of the various regions in Ghana.

Ahafo ​​1,000,000

Ashanti​​3, 500,000

Bono ​​1, 000,000

Bono East ​​1,200,000

Central ​​1,500,000

Eastern ​​2,000,000

Greater Accra ​2,500,000

North East ​​500,000

Northern ​​1,000,000

Oti ​​​600,000

Savannah ​​1,000,000

Upper East ​​600,000

Upper West ​​600,000

Volta ​​500,000

Western ​​1,000,000

Western North ​1,500,000

On the day of the planting, June 10, 2022, the President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo, led the country to set the ball rolling for the series of planting which took place in Accra, and all other regions nationwide.

At the end of the planting, a survey put together by the Forestry Commission, an agency under the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources estimated that a total of 26 million seedlings have been distributed nationwide, which well exceeds the initial 20 million target. The survey noted that among the 16 regions, the Ashanti, Ahafo, Bono, Bono East, Eastern and the Greater Accra Regions exceeded their targets while, the Northern, North East and Oti Region are yet to meet their target due to low rainfall in these regions.

From the 50% purported to be planted in the forest reserve, 40.2% is said to have been planted and the other 50% for homes and other locations have seen a 49.8 work done. An analysis on the most requested seedlings also showed that tree seedlings like Teak, Ofram, Cidrella, Acacia and Mahoghany were the most sort for during the planting, not forgetting fruits and Timber species.

In a bid to practicalize one of the main objectives of the Green Ghana day which is to inculcate the values of planting and nurturing trees and its associated benefits in the youth, the 2022 edition introduced the “One Student, One Tree” initiative which was launched at the Aggrey Memorial senior high school in the Central Region, with other second cycle schools in the region representing.

As the good book admonishes, show the child the path he should go and when he grows, he will not depart from it. With this initiative as an annual exercise, it is the hope of government that these young ones will not depart from this valuable practice inculcated in but would rather go a long way to keep trees growing on our land for our very lives and for generations to come.

The time has therefore come for all Ghanaians to as a matter of necessity rally behind Government, the Ministry and other partners to continuously make the Green Ghana Project a resounding success, all in an effort to also help mitigate the impact of climate change and promote a much greener world for human survival as stipulated by the Sustainable Development Goal 16 (SDG)16 which says that “Protect, Restore and Promote Sustainable Use of Terrestrial ecosystems, Sustainably Manage Forests, combat Desertification, Halt and Reverse Land Degradation and Halt Biodiversity Loss”