PSI on tree planting covers 120,000 hectares

Juaso (Ash), Sept 20, GNA - Six years after President J.A. Kufuor launched the President's Special Initiative on Tree Plantation in an effort to replenish the nation's depleted forest reserves, about 120,000 hectares have so far been covered.

Mr Bright Manso-Howard, Asante-Akim District Forest Manager of the Forests Services Division (FSD), disclosed this at the district launch of the Greening Ghana Initiative (GGI) at Juaso in the Asante-Akim South District on Tuesday.

The GGI, which is being spearheaded by the Environmental Concerned Citizens Association of Ghana (ECCAG) in collaboration with the Ministries of Mines, Lands and Forestry as well as Local Government, rural Development and Environment, seeks to promote tree planting among Ghanaians.

According to Mr Manso-Howard, human activities and wildfires had over the years, been a major threat to forest resources, adding that, the nation lost 97.72 million dollars in revenue through wildfire in 1984 alone.

"Currently the average annual loss of revenue from timber to fire is estimated at 24 million dollars and could even be more since approximately half of wildfires in Ghana go unreported", he added. The Forest Manager further revealed that the Juaso Forest District had so far reforested a total of 3,821 hectare of land with trees, creating 15,300 jobs in the process in the district. He urged all stakeholders not only to partake in the planting of trees but also take proper care of them to reach maturity in order to serve the needed environmental purposes.

Dr Lord Justice Gyamfi-Fenteng, District Chief Executive, expressed grave concern about the increasing environmental pollution and degradation through human activities, saying only attitudinal change could reverse the trend. He said the rate at which illegal chainsaw operators were depleting forest reserves was devastating and required stringent measures to nip the practice in the bud.

The DCE cautioned against the indiscriminate felling of trees, which was prevalent in the district and urged perpetrators to refrain from the practice since it was a great disservice to posterity. Mr Joseph Aidoo, National President of ECCAG, stressed the essential role trees play in the environment and entreated all to embrace the sensitisation campaign to avoid preventable disasters. He advocated effective collaboration between officials of the Forest Services Division and communities around forest services to combat illegal chainsaw operation.