Former Assemblyman for Atoase Electoral Area in the Bono Regional capital, Sunyani, Isaac Yaw Brenya, has expressed his frustration and anger over the wanton destruction of trees he planted in the municipality by the Volta River Authority (VRA) in the name of electrification projects.

He told Mark Abisah on Suncity Radio in Sunyani that the Forestry Commission, the Environmental Protection Agency, Sunyani Traditional Council, and the Sunyani Municipal Assembly should call them to order and rather help protect the trees in the municipality.

He also wants the Sunyani Office of VRA to be conscientize to appreciate the need to plant trees to replace those they have already destroyed in the course of extending electricity to their clients.

Mr. Brenya, the longest-serving Assemblyman in Ghana, said he has lost count of trees he had planted from his days as a student of Berekum College of Education and the University of Cape Coast.

The man who most trees are credited in the Sunyani Municipality said he has so far planted over 5,000 trees at Sunyani Senior High School where he currently teaches.

The 57-year old explained his inspiration to plant trees for the greater part of his life is from the wise counsel he received from his Class Two teacher about the importance of tree planting.

“My Class Two teacher told me if you plant one tree, you increase your lifespan by fourteen minutes”, he revealed.

Yaw Brenya also cautioned landlords and property owners who indiscriminately cut down trees around their houses to desist from the practice. He reminded them that trees located five meters away from their buildings are not their property.

He reckoned shelter, windbreak, medicine, food, provision of oxygen, limiting carbon in the atmosphere, and beautification of the environment as some of the importance of trees that must not be compromised for any other purpose.

He charged Ghanaians to jealously protect and safeguard the natural habitat of mankind, because “when the last tree dies, the last man dies”.