Afforestation programme establishes 20,000 hectares, Thursday, September 8, 2011, Back page

The National Forest Plantation Development Programme, which was launched last year, has so far established 20,000 hectares of tree plantations in addition to the creation of 28,000 jobs nationwide.


The programme, which is being implemented in all the 170 districts in the country, has a planting target of 50,000 by the end of 2011.

The project, among other objectives, is expected to restore Ghana’s degraded forest cover, reduce the country’s degraded forest cover, reduce the country’s wood deficit and also enhance the production of food crops and contribute to food security.

The Chief Executive Officer of the Forestry Commission, Mr Samuel Afari Dartey, announced the progress of the project at the launch of the “Greening Ghana Day”, an initiative aimed at restoring the country’s vegetative cover, at Winneba in the Central Region.

In spite of the numerous benefits derived from the forest, including foreign exchange earnings from timber export, storing and recycling of carbon and habitat for wildlife, Ghana’s forests continue to be under serious threat of degradation from the activities of illegal miners, chainsaw operators, increased conversion of forest lands, especially of-reserve areas to agriculture lands due to population pressure and inadequate enforcement of policies and regulations.

The Greening Ghana campaign, in addition to other initiatives, is therefore expected to help preserve the country’s forest cover which has dwindled to 1.6 million hectares from about eight million hectares at the time of independence.

With climate change expected to bite hard on food production and the availability of water in some few years to come, experts say planting 20,000 hectares of trees annually remains crucial to preserving the country’s vanishing forests.

Mr Dartey said adequate seedlings had already been distributed and would continue to be distributed immediately after the launch of the initiative to all regions, districts and communities.

He, therefore, urged the people to contact any of the regional and districts offices for seedlings.

The Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, Mr Mike Hammah, who launched the campaign, said the devastating effects of forest degradation especially during the past two decades, were beginning to manifest in the extinction of the country’s premium timber species, including Odum, Mahogany and Sapele.