Nana Obuba Botwe II, Chief of Obotwire in the Akuapem South District, has led his people in planting over 300 trees to serve as windshields to protect their homes from powerful storms.

About 100 community members participated in the exercise which was also aimed at improving the environment and inculcating a sense of environmental protection, preservation and consciousness in the people.

Addressing the people after the exercise, Nana Botwe expressed his commitment to improve the livelihoods of his community and called on non-governmental organisations and government to support his efforts in improving the environment, education and health facilities in the area.

He thanked Trees for the Future, an NGO and KOWA Farms Cooperative Association, organisers of the programme for their collaborative effort in supporting the tree planting exercise.

Mr. Raymond Buami, Project Director for Kobo Number Three Awoma Cooperative Food Farming and Marketing Society, said the absence of trees in the community has compounded the problems of the area as most buildings were often affected during heavy storms.

He urged the community members to be ambassadors of the environment by adopting the right attitude in protecting trees and caring for them adding that, “trees are a very important component of human lives and are supposed to be given very good care and protection”.

Mr. Buami gave the assurance that his NGO would continue to collaborate with other NGOs and organisations in creating income generating activities like pig farming, goats and sheep rearing as well as moringa processing; and create more employment opportunities for the people.

Mr. George Ansah, Technical Officer of Trees for the Future, said the concept of agro-forestry, tree protection, composting, crop rotation and the importance of planting nitrogen fixing trees on farms would help improve soil fertility.

Mr. Lovans Owusu-Takyi, Country Director for Trees for the Future and lecturer at Kumasi Institute of Tropical Agriculture (KITA), said his NGO would plant two million trees in Ghana in various communities, schools, and farms by establishing windbreaks, woodlots, alley cropping on farms.

He called on communities to take action to plant more trees to restore their environment and protect buildings against the high winds and rainstorms.**