GHANA WEATHER

Upper West adopts strategy to plant 600,000 trees in reserve and off reserve areas

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By Emmanuel Mensah-Abludo

The Upper West Region is planting 600,000 tree seedlings as its target for this year’s Green Ghana Day. The Upper West Regional Coordinating Director, Peter Maala, announced this in an address read for the Regional Minister, Stephen Yakubu, during a symbolic event at Wa Senior High School to kick-start the tree planting exercise in Wa.

According to Mr Maala, out of the Upper West Regional target, a total of 500,000 seedlings will be planted in reserve and 100,000 seedlings in off-reserve areas. Mr Maala appealed to the good people of the Upper West to actively participate in the exercise to improve their lot as peasant farmers who are close to the desert. 

He said: “May I therefore appeal to the good people of the Upper West Region to actively participate in this all-important exercise, as the initiative is very appropriate for our circumstances since we are very close to the desert and our survival depends very much on the environment as mostly peasant farmers. I am happy to announce to you that we have, for the past three years, planted over 1.3 million seedlings, exceeding our target of about 1.1 million seedlings.  The survival rate for planted seedlings for the past three years is between 60% and 70%.  This indicates that our effort has been yielding positive results, and we should therefore be encouraged by this to plant more trees.”

Mr Peter Maala planting a tree.

Mr Maala, however, regretted the loss of over 157,000 hectares of forest cover between 2010 and 2015 alone. “In fact, available statistics show that between 2010 and 2015 alone, the amount of forest lost in Ghana far exceeded the area of forests cultivated between 1963 and 2016, which stands at 157,300 hectares.

Furthermore, estimates from the Forestry Commission and the World Bank suggest that Ghana loses about 65,000 hectares of forest per year, representing about 2.03 percent average annual loss. So if care is not taken, the country is likely to lose all its forest cover by 2040 due to human activities,” he indicated.

Mr Peter Maala speaking at the event.

He stated that there is a close link between poverty and environmental degradation and that the exploitation of our natural resources should be sustainably done so that generations unborn can also benefit from them.

Mr Maala expressed appreciation to the Headmaster and staff, as well as the students of Wa Senior High School, for making your campus available for the launch of the 2024 edition of the Green Ghana Day celebration and actively participating in the exercise.

The Upper Regional Director the Forest Services Division of the Forestry Commission, Godfred Quashigah, was very thankful to all collaborators for their support and stressed the necessity for people to see tree planting as a process rather than an event by nurturing trees to grow.

Mr Godfred Quashigah planting a tree.

“Let us also be reminded that tree planting is not an event; it is a process, so after today, let us continue to care for the trees we plant, ensuring that they are well nurtured to become well established. Let is ensure that we plant, grow, and nurture trees, which in the end will help restore our degraded landscape and mitigate the impact of climate change,” Mr Quashigah emphasised.

The Assistant Headmaster in Charge of Administration of Wa Senior High School, Hakeem Musah, who deputised for the Headmaster, Alhaji Adams Iddrisu Thirdman, expressed gratitude to the Regional Forestry Commission for the honour done Wa Senior High School by choosing it as the venue for the event.

Mr Musah said nursing seedlings into trees is one of the school’s priorities as an institution with over two hundred students in the Agric Department. He, however, expressed concern about containers in front of the school’s wall by the roadside, saying the activities of the container owners are thwarting the efforts of the school to green the space between the walls and the road, and appealed for the removal of structures.

Tree seedlings.

The Ketuo Naa, Naa Osman K. Salia, who represented the Wa Naa, Naa Fuseini Seidu Pelpuo, planted the first symbolic tree and called for all hands to be on deck in connection with the exercise.

The Upper West Regional Police Commander, DCOP Darko Offei Lomotey, was among the dignitaries who planted the symbolic trees.

Wa Senior High School was recognised for its outstanding role in tree planting over the past three years and was presented with various agric equipment.

Dignitaries in a photo session.

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