President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, will this year lead a tree planting exercise scheduled for June 11, 2021 to begin an ambitious regreening project.

His gesture will kick-start a national tree-planting project, dubbed “Plant a Tree to Green Ghana.”

Other high-profile personalities to take part in the exercise at the birth of the project are Vice President Mahamadu Bawumia, Speaker of Parliament Alban Bagbin and Chief Justice Kwasi Anin Yeboah and Asantehene Otumfuo Osei Tutu and Yaa Naa Abubakar Mahama II.

Land and Natural Resources Minister Samuel Abu Jinapor on Friday announced in Parliament House, in Accra, in a statement that the Government of Ghana has targeted five million trees under the project.

“They, and a host of other distinguished personalities will be called upon to support the project with their prestige, by publicly planting trees on the day,” Mr Jinapor said, in the statement to commemorate The United Nations International Day of Forests which fell on 21st March, 2021.

Mr Jinapor stressed: “This project will see to the planting of five million commercial and other trees, in all sixteen (16) Regions.

“In one day we are all going plant a tree to green Ghana.”

The Minister said the success of the project will increase significantly the forest cover of the country.

“In the medium to long term, we intend to ramp-up this campaign to result in the planting of one hundred million (100,000,000) trees. This initiative is aligned with the Ghana Forest Plantation Strategy (2016-2040) and our commitments to various international agreements, including the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), African Landscape Restoration Initiative (AF100) and the Bonn Challenge, he added.

According to the Minister, Government anticipates “mobilizing the mass of our population to plant trees, nurture them to maturity, and contribute to the preservation of our environment.”

Parliament, political leaders, traditional leaders, Corporate Ghana, activists in the green world, leaders of local government, teachers, nurses, informal sector employees, and ordinary Ghanaians will be galvanized to contribute their resources, energies and support to make Green Ghana”

In 2012, the United Nations General Assembly declared 21st March of every year as the International Day of Forests.

This day is set aside to create global awareness on the Importance of all types of forests and trees outside forest enclaves. This decision was taken in response to national and international concerns on the high rate of deforestation and forest degradation recorded across the globe.

Further, the consequential adverse impact of Climate Change on the livelihoods and economic development of many nations, especially developing countries, contributed significantly to this global consciousness on the need to protect the global eco-system.

On each International Day of Forests, countries are encouraged to undertake local, national and international efforts to organize activities involving tree planting campaigns.

The global theme for the celebration is “Forest Restoration: A Path to Recovery and Well-Being”.

However, Ghana has modified this global theme slightly to meet its National Policy on Forestry thus, “Forest Landscape Restoration: Planting Five Million Trees in a Day.”