Two environmental non-governmental organisations (NGOs), Tropenbos Ghana and EcoCare Ghana, have commended the government, the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources and the Forestry Commission for the Green Ghana Project.

The two described the initiative that aimed at planting five million trees in a single day across the country as a timely and crucial investment for economic growth.

A statement said the organisations, as partners in the European Union (EU)-funded Landscapes and Environmental Agility across the Nation (LEAN) project in the Transition Landscape, were also committed to supporting the government for embarking on an agenda to restore Ghana’s degraded landscapes, mitigate climate change and enhance the livelihoods of rural communities.

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The support

The two organisations have donated 39,000 native and fruit tree seedlings to the Bono East Regional Office of the Forestry Commission to support the initiative.

The LEAN project’s objective is to directly contribute to the national efforts of conserving biodiversity, improve livelihoods of smallholder farmers, increase climate change resilience and reduce emissions from land use changes in the savannah, high forest and transition zones of Ghana.

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Scope

The four-year project funded by the EU will be implemented by Rainforest Alliance in partnership with World Vision Ghana, Tropenbos Ghana, and EcoCare Ghana in the High Forest, Savannah and Transition Landscapes of Ghana respectively.

The project will further build climate resilience and promote natural resource conservation through training and mentoring of 12,000 smallholders on Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) and Sustainable Forest Management (SFM) in six selected districts.

These are Offinso North and Offinso Municipal assemblies, the Nkoranza North, Nkoranza South, Techiman North and Techiman Municipal assemblies, all within the forest savanna transition landscape.

The group, therefore, called on all organisations and individuals to support the project to help restore the country’s degraded lands.

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Green Ghana Project

The Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Mr Samuel Abdulai Jinapor, on June 9, 2021, announced the planting of trees as part of the Green Ghana project.

“As part of the programme, we are seeking to work out a formula where the trees to be planted will be economic trees. We are talking about the Timber, Wawa, Nim, Rosewood, Shea trees. The rationale for this intervention is so that in planting the trees, we are also making an investment for the future.

“For instance, the time it takes for timber to mature is a long time and now we do not have enough economic trees which can contribute to the national developmental agenda, and so part of it also is to ensure that we have economic trees,” he said.