The Eastern Regional Manager of the Forestry Commission (FC), Mr. Attah Owusu, has appealed to the public to cultivate the interest of planting trees to replenish the environment.

He said Ghana’s forest cover was fast depleting due to human activities such as illegal mining, lumbering and farming practices which had devastated water bodies, viable lands and the environment in general.

Mr. Owusu, who was speaking at the pre-launch of the Greening Ghana Programme in Koforidua on Tuesday, said about 40 percent of the 48 forest reserves with a total of 1,769.40 km in the Region had been degraded.

He said illegal mining in the forest reserves and lumbering had been the major human activities that had devastated the forest reserves and caused damage to many water bodies that served as sources of drinking water to many people in the region.

The Regional manager urged the media to also be interested in the campaign for Greening Ghana and help the FC to educate and sensitize the public on the need to plant trees.

Mr. Joseph Osiakwan, the Coordinator of the Greening Ghana Programme at the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources, said the programme started some years ago with the objective of planting 20,000 hectares of trees each year.

He said the annual launch was to re-enforce the need to plant trees and stop illegal activities such as mining and lumbering through sensitization and awareness creation.

Mr. Osiakwan said this year, the annual launch would be performed at Ashanti-Mampong in September adding that the pre-launch was to outdoor a young man who had volunteered to be the Greening Ghana Ambassador.

The Greening Ghana Ambassador, Mr. Kwadwo Amponsah, as part of his volunteerism would embark on a walk from Koforidua through Tafo, Anyinam, Juaso, Konongo, Mamponteng and Ashanti-Mampong with the message for people to plant trees on every space available.