Diplomatic community plants trees to mark Green Ghana Day
This year's Green Ghana Day (GGD), a tree planting initiative meant to restore the country’s degraded landscape, received massive support from the diplomatic community when many diplomats gathered at the Seismological Observatory Centre at the Achimota Forest Reserve yesterday to plant trees.
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Inspired by the theme, "Growing for a Greener Tomorrow," the diplomats joined citizens of Ghana to plant 10 million seedlings in degraded forest reserves and off-reserve areas in a national effort towards addressing the global climate crisis.
The ambassadors and foreign missions, who have actively participated in the GGD since its inception in 2021, planted trees and inspected those they had planted over the past three years.
Among the key personalities at the tree planting event were the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Forestry Commission, John Allotey; Dean of the Diplomatic Corps and Lebanese Ambassador to Ghana, Maher Kheir; ambassadors of the Czech Republic, Pavel Bílek; Italy, Daniela d'Orlandi; Germany, Daniel Krull; and the UN Resident Coordinator, Charles Abani. The ambassadors and Commissioners for Canada, Namibia, Morocco, Sudan, Burkina Faso, Egypt, Mozambique, Ethiopia and Malaysia were also present. Representatives of some faith-based organisations, civil society organisations (CSOs), and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Secretariat also participated in the tree planting exercise.
The Executive Director of the Forestry Services Division (FSD) of the Forestry Commission, Hugh Brown, led the diplomatic corps to inspect trees they planted in the previous three GGD editions.
The trees, which had name tags on them, were growing, indicating a high survival rate.
Collective action Mr Kheir stressed that the GGD was an important initiative that would contribute significantly to addressing the global climate crisis and help to save humanity.
He said protecting humanity and the planet required collective action and collaboration by all stakeholders across the world.
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"Small actions, when done by many, can lead to a bigger change," he said, underscoring the need for all stakeholders in the country to be committed
to planning trees to protect the environment.
Mr Kheir stressed that apart from planting the trees, it was important for effective monitoring and nurturing regimes to be implemented to ensure that the surviving trees grew to maturity.
Protect forests For his part, Mr Brown said the involvement of the diplomatic community in the GGD was a wake-up call for all Ghanaians to take the exercise seriously.
He underscored the need for all stakeholders to help preserve the sanctity of the country’s forests to enjoy the benefits the resources had for humanity and the planet.
Mr Brown also urged persons whose activities destroyed the forest to halt such actions.
"We are planting more trees as part of the Green Ghana initiative, and this is a great move to restore our degraded forests.
“However, we cannot continue to lose more forests through illegal human activities, " he said.