Government has called on Ghanaians to rally behind its Green Ghana initiative as it plans to re-green Ghana and protect the country’s forest reserves.

The Green Ghana Day which is slated for June 11, 2021 is a national effort at planting more than 5 million trees in a single day to preserve and protect the country’s forest cover and the environment at large.

The call was made by the Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, Samuel Abu Jinapor at a press briefing in Accra on Wednesday June 9, 2021.

Addressing journalists, the Minister said the project is a collective responsibility for which a concerted effort is needed to address the adverse degradation of Ghana’s forests reserves.

He said “we have come to this point through years of systematic degradation without the commensurate aggressive afforestation. The experts will tell you that we have utilized our forest cover and resources unsustainably. The issues of small scale mining and the harvesting of our trees in a very unsustainable manner has brought us to this point.

“It is therefore the reason why in accordance with the vision of the President of the Republic H.E Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, the Green Ghana Project was launched which essentially is a well-thought-through project which is over a period of time systematically implementing programmes and action plans that will result in the restoration of the forest cover of our country,” he added.

This he said millions of seedlings made up of different tree species had already been distributed to the 16 regions through the Forestry Commission for further distribution to individual Ghanaians and organizations for the purposes of planting.

He said the symbolic tree planting exercise will see President Akufo-Addo, the Vice President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia; the Speaker of Parliament, Mr Alban S. K. Bagbin and the Chief Justice, Mr Justice Kwasi Anin-Yeboah, planting a tree each on June 11.

Mr. Jinapor also mentioned other high-profile personalities who will take part in the exercise as the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II and the Overlord of Dagbon, Yaa-Naa Abukari II, as well as other important dignitaries all over the country.