President Akufo-Addo has declared this year’s Green Ghana Day as one of hope for climate action.
Setting the ball rolling today, June 9, 2023, as series of planting takes place all over the country to mark the 2023 edition of the Green Ghana Day on the theme: ‘Our Forests, Our Health’, President Akufo-Addo joined the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources to mark the day.
As Ghana and other nations worldwide grapple with the urgent need for sustainable practices to mitigate the adverse effects of global warming, the President emphasized the importance of collective action.
President Akufo-Addo called upon all Ghanaians to actively contribute to the preservation of the environment. This, he noted, is in light of the unprecedented global environmental challenges that threaten the existence and the fate of the planet.
“We are living in a time of unprecedented global environmental challenges that threaten our existence and the faith of our planet. The climate crisis is affecting our health, livelihood, security, and our future and it is the major obstacle to sustainable development. The inter-governmental panel on climate change reports that human activities have emitted some 2.4 trillion of carbon dioxide since the pre-industrial era and half of that amount remains in the atmosphere till this very day.”
President Akufo-Addo
Despite the climate change affecting health, livelihoods, security and its impact to sustainable development. President Akufo-Addo assured that Government remains fully committed to protecting the environment and the people of Ghana and also contribute to global efforts to halt climate change.
“Government will, therefore, continue to explore all avenues to enhance our forest cover through afforestation and reforestation programmes and protect our natural resources through community-based management and conservation initiatives. We recognize that this global crisis requires collective, ambitious, and meaningful efforts from all countries. We have, therefore, committed, under our enhanced Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by some 64 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent by 2030, and enhance our resilience and adaptation to climate change, by improving early warning systems, promoting climate-smart agriculture, restoring degraded lands, and protecting coastal zones.
President Akufo-Addo
On his part, Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, Samuel A. Jinapor, in his speech, was confident that this year’s Green Ghana Day will be a grand success with a downsized target of 10 million to ensure that more attention is given to nurturing trees planted in previous years.
With this, he charged Ghanaians towards the planting exercise saying “all we require from Ghanaians is to come out, pick up seedlings, plant and nurture to maturity”.
Overlord of GBI traditional area commends government
Meanwhile, Togbega Gabusu VII, Overlord of GBI traditional area, has commended government for its initiative to plant 10 million trees as target for the 2023 Green Ghana Day.
Speaking at the ceremonial planting, the Overlord of GBI stated that government has the absolute support of the people of GBI to give it the necessary support as traditional authorities. He noted that it is therefore imperative for all and sundry to ensure a sustainable management of the forest resources and find solutions to mitigate all actions that are destroying Ghana’s forest and trees.
Furthermore, the chief described tree planting as a religious assignment and a social responsibility which every individual must engage in.
“Every religious person knows the reward he stands to gain from God due to the benefit it will give to all living things in the world. It is also a social responsibility because it is through our own activities which lead to the depletion of the forest we have in the country.”
Togbega Gabusu VII
Moreover, Togbega Gabusu VII revealed that depletion of the forest reserves is largely caused by human activities such as inappropriate farming activities, charcoal and Bush burning, timber logging. He further expressed that if the activities are not checked, it will continue to cause the depletion of Ghana’s forest reserves.
Nonetheless, he commended the ministry and government as a whole for their timely intervention to plant more trees since it will go a long way to address deforestation in the forest areas of the country.
On his part, the Principal planing Officer, Mr Frank Adigbo who led a delegation to represent the Ministry encouraged the people of GBI to fully partake in the tree planting exercise which aims at restoring Ghana’s forest reserves and making Ghana green. He appealed to them not to just plant but also nurture the trees to enhance the purpose of planting 10 million trees a reality.
READ ALSO: Green Ghana Is Government’s Way of Greenwashing Ghanaians- A Rocha Ghana
