The government says it is committed to restoring the country’s forest cover through aggressive afforestation and reforestation programmes to contribute to global climate action.
The Deputy Minister for Lands and Natural Resources in charge of Lands and Forestry, Mr Benito Owusu-Bio, disclosed this at the maiden edition of the Business and Financial Times (B&FT) Environmental Sustainability Summit in Accra.
He said interventions such as the Green Ghana Project, Ghana Cocoa REDD Programme, Shea Landscape Emission Reduction Programme, Ghana Forest investment Programme, Cocoa and Forest Initiative and the Ghana Landscape Restoration and Small-Scale Mining Project, were all aimed at safeguarding the environment from further degradation
“The government is conscious about the drivers of deforestation and climate change; our concentration is to ensure that at least we plant more trees to arrest the rate of deforestation and forest degradation,” he emphasized.
He said the country was already experiencing some effects of climate change and in the coming decades, the impact would affect natural resources, livelihoods, and food and water security in significant ways.
“There are strong indications that developing countries will bear much the brunt of these adverse consequences. This is largely because of high vulnerability levels and low adaptation capabilities,” he reiterated.
Mr Owusu-Bio reaffirmed the commitment of the government to the fight the devastating effect of climate change, stating that the country had embarked on an aggressive afforestation and reforestation programme dubbed the “Green Ghana Day” as a collective action towards the restoration of degraded landscapes in the country.
He called for the collective efforts by stakeholders to put in place the necessary measures that would help reduce the rate of climate change in the country.
The theme of the summit was: The Socio-Economic impact of pollution on the environment and natural life.
Irene Wirekoaa Osei, ISD
