Four corporate organizations Tuesday presented a total of GHC520,000 dummy cheques to the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources towards the Green Ghana Project to procure more seedlings for planting.
The Green Ghana Project is intended to plant five million trees on Friday, June 11, 2021, across the country and President Akufo-Addo will commemoratively plant a tree on the day.
The companies that made the donations were the National Petroleum Authority-GH¢ 200,000, West Africa Quarries Limited-GH¢200,000, Petroleum Commission-GH¢100,000 and the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority-GH¢20,000.
The representatives of those companies said they were motivated to support President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s vision of restoring the forest cover, ravaged by the activities of illegal miners.
Additionally, it was inclined to help green Ghana and preserve the ecosystem to help fight the negative effects of climate change.
Mr Benito Owusu-Bio, a Deputy Minister-Designate for Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources and Chairman of the Planning Committee of Green Ghana Project received the cheques on behalf of the Ministry.
He urged faith-based organizations, corporate entities, schools and all well-meaning Ghanaians, to join forces towards planting five million trees a day.
He, therefore, entreated all interested persons and corporate bodies who would like to participate in the nationwide exercise to go to the district offices of the Forestry Commission and Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies for their seedlings.
Mr Owusu-Bio believed that the enthusiasm shown so far by the Ministry of Education and Ghana Education Service to plant five million trees under the “One-Student, One-Tree” initiative, coupled with faith-based organizations’ desire to plant one million trees on the day, the Ministry would even exceed the five million trees target.
He said the five million trees targeted this year would be scaled up to 10 million trees next year since the programme would be an annual event.
He urged other corporate entities to support the laudable initiative with logistics such as shovels, watering cans and other equipment for a successful programme.
He thanked the Presbyterian Church Ghana, the Anglican Church, the Methodist Church, the Pentecostal and Charismatic Churches and the Muslim Community, as well as the media for the zeal they had shown in mobilising their members to plant trees on the day.
On nurturing the trees to maturity, Mr Owusu-Bio said the Forestry Commission would take care of the young trees in the forest reserves, while the 45,000 brigade corps under the Youth in Afforestation would cater for the trees in the urban areas.
“It is our collective responsibility to plant trees to restore our depleted forest cover and preserve the environment for the present and future generations,” the Deputy Minister-Designate added.
