The Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, Samuel Abu Jinapor, has disclosed that the drive to reforest by planting millions of trees in the country is as a result of necessity.

Samuel Abu Jinapor stated that the activity will help prevent the crisis that lies ahead so far as the nation’s forest cover is concerned.

“What drove the decision is really the matter of necessity. Necessity they say is the mother of all inventions and when there is a crisis, you try to find a solution to it.”
Samuel Abu Jinapor

The Minister noted that the nation’s forest cover has depleted by a whooping rate as Ghana’s forest cover has reduced by almost 80 percent. “We are in a state of crisis.”

“I mean the first enclave of our country, almost all of it is depleted. It has been so as a result of urbanization, illegal mining, degradation of forest reserves. Several factors have contributed to it and gotten us to the position where Ghana’s forest reserve cover and landscape has been depleted by considerable proportion. When that is the case, it means that we need to find aggressive methods of dealing with that kind of crisis.”
Samuel Abu Jinapor

The Lands Minister averred that the Ministry is making efforts in two approaches by ensuring a halt in deforestation and forest degradation. According to him, there are gamut of measures which has been rolled out over the years to halt these activities and some improvement has been made.

Restoring lost forest covers

Honorable Samuel Jinapor disclosed that government, in restoring the lost forest covers, is using an approach where the nation will engage in aggressive afforestation and reforestation. He averred the Green Ghana Project is mainly to mobilize the public to engage in afforestation.

Speaking about the Green Ghana project set to commence on June 10, 2022, Samuel Jinapor stated he was overwhelmed with the initial response and acceptance of the maiden Green Ghana Project.

“I wasn’t surprised but I was particularly overwhelmed because, you know, when it comes to issues of nature, survival, sustainability and preservation of the environment, people come to it naturally. It’s just about all of us and it’s about protecting our country and our survival.”
Samuel Abu Jinapor

The Minister lauded the remarkable enthusiasm shown by Ghanaians on the maiden edition and expressed confidence in the upcoming exercise to be a success as well. He averred he expects a lot more to happen come June 10, 2022.

According to Samuel Jinapor, without trees, there will be no survival, as such, more must be done to ensure there are more trees in the system. The issue of climate, he indicated, has reached a tipping point which has to be dealt with even at the local level.

“The person who is not an expert will even realize that the weather patterns and the season of our country is changing. When we expect rains it doesn’t rain but when we don’t expect rains, it rains and rains over the board with the issues of flood all over the place.”
Samuel Abu Jinapor

Mr. Jinapor stated that the current weather changes are as a result the worsening climate which he posited affects the nation on a daily basis. As such, he urged all to help in afforesting the nation to contribute to the restoration of the forest cover.

“It affects our agricultural productivity, our habitats, our survival and affects the general well being of the country and the globe. Therefore, the global effort in climate change is one that Ghana is fully committed to.”
Samuel Abu Jinapor