Analysis of data on government’s tree planting exercise for the past two years indicates that out of the 33 million trees planted cumulatively, some 24.39m trees survived.
74% survival rate
This puts the cumulative survival rate of the tree planting exercise spearheaded by the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources for the two years at 74%.
The 24.39m trees that survived means 8.61 million trees planted did not survive.
7m trees planted in 2021
In the first year of the tree planting exercise in 2021, the target was to plant five million trees, but at the end of the exercise, seven million seedlings were planted.
5.67m representing 81% survived
Research conducted the following year indicates that 5.67 million seedlings representing 81% survived.
26m trees planted in 2022
For 2022, more than 26 million trees were planted, exceeding the 20 million target.
18.72m representing 72% survived
A follow up research shows that 18.72 million trees representing 72% also survived.
10m seedlings to be planted today
Today, Green Ghana Day organisers target to plant 10 million seedlings across the country to mark the third year of the exercise.
Green Ghana Day was launched by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo in 2021 under the auspices of the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources, as part of an aggressive afforestation and reforestation agenda of the government.
Restoring the lost forest cover
The initiative is intended to restore the lost forest cover of the country devastated by the illegal small-scale mining and timber logging.
24.39m trees
The Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II officially launched this year’s edition of the Green Ghana Day on Wednesday, May 17, 2023 and urged all well-meaning Ghanaians to support the tree planting exercise.
Meanwhile, the Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, Samuel A. Jinapor has called on Ghanaians and residents of Ghana to join government and his Ministry in the tree planting exercise today.
He encouraged them to not only pickup the seedlings but also do well to plant and nurture it unto maturity.
He said nurturing the trees to maturity is as important as planting and that he noted is the reason for downsizing this year’s Green Ghana target to 10 million seedlings.
President Akufo-Addo to plant tree at Legon
He stated out the road map for the Green Ghana Day, pointing out that planting the exercise will commence with the President’s Commemorative planting at the University of Ghana Legon after which some other dignitaries will plant concurrently in various regions across the country.
“Otumfuo will be planting, Yaa Naa will be planting, the National Chief Imam, the Chief of Staff and other key stakeholders like the Ambassadors in Ghana will also be planting,” he added.
The Minister also revealed that Parliament has suspended its session on the Green Ghana Day to allow all parliamentarians lead their constituents to plant.
The Minister in his submissions announced that distribution of seedlings has started and encouraged all to visit the various pick up points in the country to pick up theirs.
Where to pick up seedlings for free
He named some of the pickup points to be the Forestry Commission Head Office, Regional and Districts offices of the Forest Services Division, the Ministry and the malls.
Jinapor also named the tree seedlings available for pick up, outlining them as, fruit trees such as, Mango, Guava, Coconut and some ornamental plants with timber species and oil palm as well.
He applauded Ghanaians for the support so far and also appreciated the efforts of the Green Ghana Planning Committee and all other partners and stakeholders for making government’s aggressive afforestation and reafforestation agenda a success.
Ghana has some estimated 6.6 million hectares of forest, made up of 1.2 million hectares of closed forest and 5.4 million hectares of open forest.
These have, however, come under threat, largely, from activities such as illegal mining and illegal logging.
Between 2010 and 2015 alone, Ghana lost, on the average, over 28,000 hectares of forest each single year, peaking at 35,000 hectares in 2014, largely due to illegal mining and illegal logging.
A total of 547,891.70 hectares of degraded forest lands have been cultivated between 2017 and 2021.
On the other hand, between 1963 and 2016, only 157,300 hectares of forest was cultivated.
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