Hohoe, March 1, GNA - Ms Sherry Ayittey, Minister of Environment, Science and Technology, has said that the 93Greening Ghana" agenda would materialise through plantation policy strategy towards regenerating the environment in a holistic and sustainable manner through private-public partnership approaches. She said the programme would succeed because apart from public advocac= y programmes involving prime stakeholders including traditional authorities, communities, schools and civil society organisations (CSOs) would also be brought onboard, and award schemes introduced. Ms Ayittey stated these in an interview with the Ghana News Agency recently, after the launch of the Volta Regional Plantation Programme at Gbefi in the Kpando district.

She said women groupings would be contracted to raise seedlings for planting purposes, with schools and communities competing for incentives an= d awards at the district, regional and national levels. "Inasmuch as the programme would be an avenue for job creation, it would also be a platform for inculcating the habit and culture of tree growing among students as well as community members," the Minister added.

Ms Ayittey said customs, values and traditions, which protected forest resources should be exploited for replication with much attention on the preservation of such resources.

She recounted the Tanzanian experience where trees are grown in four-rolls around residential and office buildings, stating that apart from serving as wind brakes, they also serve as vegetative cover and check the fixation of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

Ms Ayittey indicated the Ministry would collaborate with the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development (MLGRD) to compel Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies to strictly enforce their environmental bye-laws to deter recalcitrant citizens from plunder forests. The Minister said aside the training of fire volunteers by the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS), the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) would support the training of additional fire volunteers to fight the perennial bushfires. As part of the drive, traditional stakeholders' fora would be organi= sed for National and Regional Houses of Chiefs on Climate Change and the global warming phenomenon and their direct impact on the environment and humanity.

She said her Ministry was advocating for environmental allowances for traditional areas, which would enforce laws that would in the long-run curb the unjustifiable destruction of forests resources, stressing that 93The social, health and economic importance of trees cannot be quantified." Ms Akua Sena Dansua, Minister of Tourism, said the environment was crucial to the tourism industry and called on all to join the crusade to plant a tree towards greening the country. She observed that sustained and well motivated campaigns were benchmarks for the success of the forest investment programme and called on the media to play a leading role.