A Rocha Ghana Plants Over 12,000 Trees On Green Ghana Day
Ghana through the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources (MLNR) and the Forestry Commission (FC) made a commitment to plant Five (5) million trees across the nation bringing to fruition a long-time dream of greening the country’s urban and rural areas.
June 11, 2021 marked the first occurrence of the nation-wide tree planting exercise dubbed “Green Ghana Day” and had all of A Rocha Ghana (ARG) offices—Mole Ecological, Lake Bosumtwi and Atewa Landscapes, taking part in the historical event.
With all three landscapes put together, a little over 12,000 trees were planted.
Atewa Landscape
The exercise’s main objective, to save depleting forest reserves, was adapted to serve more than one goal in and around the mined lands of the Atewa Forest landscape.
ARG, in collaboration with the FC, per the initiative from the MLNR, distributed several timber seedlings which comprised of Emire, Ofram and Mahogany species to seven communities (Amanfrom, Apapam, Anhwenease, Adukrom, Asikam, Asiakwa and Owuratwum); seven schools (Sagyimaase M/A, SOS, Asikam Presby, Adukrom M/A, Larbikrom M/A, SSTEPS, Anhwenease M/A), and one eco-park (Bunso Eco park) around the Atewa Forest Landscape. This distribution, done at no cost to the individuals, communities, schools and parks on the receiving end, was carried out on Tuesday, June 8,2021, two days before the planting exercise took place.
On June 11, 2021, dozens of volunteers from the participating communities, A Rocha Ghana team members from Accra, and partners like IUCN and Noe joined the team for the planting day. After hours of planting under the scorching sun, it was recorder that 5270 tree seedlings were planted between June 11 and June 12 in the Atewa Landscape.
Lake Bosumtwi Landscape
In the Ashanti region, the A Rocha office was heavily supported by our student wing—A Rocha KNUST. About 67 members of the group together with the A Rocha team and some community members planted within the buffer zones of the Lake Bosumtwi precisely around the Duase and Beposo communities.
The team recorded the planting of close to 1000 seedlings of Mahogany (Kaya ivorensis) and Ofram (Terminalia superba).
Mole Ecological Landscape
Communities around the Mole National Park were not left out of the exercise. They joined the A Rocha Ghana staff to plant 5, 970 seedlings of Mahogany, Mangoes and Cassia.
The planting took place at Bonyanto and Larabanga all in the West Gonja Municipality of the Savannah region.
Isaac Ntori, Project Officer at A Rocha Ghana who took the communities through the right pegging processes, indicated that the Green Ghana Campaign could not have taken place anytime better than now.
“As a country we are fast losing our vegetation cover through destructive activities such as illegal mining, logging, excessive charcoal production among others. It is therefore critical to plant and nurture trees to rehabilitate the degraded woodlands. The trees when matured will help to conserve biodiversity and also mitigate climate change impacts,” he said.
The Green Ghana Day tree-planting exercise was overall considered as a success as it not only set the groundwork for a greener future for all Ghanaians, but also served as an avenue for A Rocha to advocate for ecosystem services and climate change while fostering community engagement.
Officials were ensured by participants that continuous care would be given to the seedlings as they mature, and caution taken with the rest of the existing lands and forests.
