The Head of the Forestry Commission and the Municipal Assembly has urged all to help in planting trees to help in sustaining the environment.
In line with the Green Ghana initiative, the Tano south Municipal Assembly in collaboration with the Forestry Commission are to plant 50,000 trees in the location covering schools, communities, churches, homes and forest areas to complement the government`s 5million planting of trees across the country under the theme: “let’s go planting”.
Some of the dignitaries planning some of the trees
In her welcome address, Mrs Josephine Biney, the Assistant District Manager for the Forest Service Division-Bechem the Green Ghana project is government initiative to replant trees to replace the depleted forest through the human activities of felling down the trees without replanting for long time. The forestry officers made a remark that the Member of Parliament and government officials` heart bleed whenever heavy rain threatens to fall with storms which roof off people’s houses.
The Assistant District Manager for the Forest Service Mrs Josephine Biney giving her welcome address
Speaking at the programme, the Tano South MCE Hon. Collins Offinam Takyi, noted that it is a good initiative to leave the legacy for planting trees, the forestry officers should develop the habit of planting continuously without fail and should not only plant because they are being paid.
The Tano South MCE Hon. Collins Offinam Takyi speaking at the gathering
He said government employed youth in afforestation to plant trees which are very important for human survival and advised that the planted trees should be conserved by continuous watering and maintenance.
According to him, the benefits derived from trees are quite enormous and sited medicine and clothes as most common examples. He called on all state agencies to liaise with each other and non-state agencies to grow woodlot to prevent encroachment on their land and urge them to water them regularly.
Addressing the gathering, the MP for Tano South, Hon. Benjamin Yeboah Sekyere said the exercise formed part of the government initiative under the Green Ghana Project to help sustain the environment and reiterated the need for Ghanaians to plant more trees for the survival of future generation. He said the environment is changing rapidly due to the destruction of the forest and water bodies through human activities. He ended by saying “when we plant trees, they grow but when we plant gold they do not grow”.
MP for Tano South Hon. Benjamin Yeboah Sekyere addressing the gathering
Nana Awuah – Boadi who represented the Omanhene of Bechem Traditional Council, thanked the government for the good intervention which would go a long way to help the ecosystem and emphasized the need to restore the ecosystem and promised to engage the community members and stakeholders to protect the environment because the country has lost some tree species due to deforestation.
