85 per cent trees planted in Assin enclave survived

More than 85 per cent of trees planted in the Assin Fosu District since the inception of the Green Ghana Programme survived.Mr Emmanuel Donkor Adjapong, Manager of the Forests Services Division of the District made this known at the Green Ghana Day celebration on Friday at Assin Sibinso in the Assin South District of the Central Region.Mr Donkor noted that the district's target of 350,000 trees this year had been exceeded, reaching more than 400,000 seedlings of various species planted in its forest enclave.This year's edition of Green Ghana Project is on the theme: 'Growing for a Greener Tomorrow'.The project is targeting to plant ten million seedlings across the country.The District Manager called on state agencies to help curb irresponsible activities such as sand winning and indiscriminate logging that were major causes of deforestation.He commended all stakeholders, especially the Ghana Education Service, traditional leaders, students and others who participated in the exercise to help resto re the country's degraded vegetation.On her part, Mrs Felicia Ntrakwa Amissah, District Chief Executive (DCE), of Assin South said it was important to plant trees because human lives depended on oxygen from trees to survive adding that, 'when the last tree dies, the last man dies'.She charged residents not to cut down trees along the roadside, as it served as a form of shade and beautified the environment as well.The DCE while acknowledging the efforts of the government and the relevant institutions in protecting the environment, expressed worry over the level of destruction of the vegetative cover through indiscriminate felling of trees and sand winning and called for an end to it.The Green Ghana Day was first held on Friday, June 11, 2021, with a post-planting monitoring survey, putting the average tree survival rate at 71 per cent with some 23 million trees planted during the year 2021 and 2022 editions.Source: Ghana News Agency