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Nanton, Ghana – Olam Grains, a subsidiary of multinational agribusiness company called Olam International in Ghana, has began the planting of assorted trees across degraded communities in the Northern Region.
The initiative, which is a continuation of some initial 11,000 trees planted last year, seeks to fight systemic deforestation challenges in communities facing severe environmental degradation as a result of bush burning, charcoal production, sand and gravel winning and indiscriminate trees cutting during farmland preparation.
Olam Grains Vice President in charge of Sales, Bishesh Ranjan Jha who announced the initiative at the 2020 regional World Environment Day commemoration at Nanton District said “Olam Grains is partnering with EPA of Ghana to plant saplings in Northern Region. We planted 11,000 saplings last year and this year we are partnering with EPA to plant another 25,000 saplings”.
Mr. Jha urged bakers in the region who were equally involved in the implementation of the tree planting programme to regularly join the EPA to monitor the saplings planted so far.
Of the 25,000 trees supplied by Olam Grains for planting, 5,000 different species of mahogany, mango and teak have been given to the Nanton District Assembly to plant.
The Forestry Commission of Ghana according to the Northern Regional Director of EPA Abu Iddrisu had also supplied 3,000 assorted tree plants to the Nanton District Assembly for planting.
Mr Iddrisu noted that since 1947, the number of streams and dams (dug outs) in the region had reduced from 6,050 to 2011 in 2015 per a study conducted by government to determine the existence of such water sources.
The development, he said, had severely affected agricultural systems in the area resulting into poor quality of crop yield, scarcity of water for animals and dry season gardening among others.
He urged authorities of the District Assembly and other institutions that had benefited from the programme to ensure that all the trees survive.
“Do whatever it takes to ensure their survival. Fence them and water them to grow”, he stated.
District Chief Executive for Nanton, Abukari Hithramani, said the protection of the environment and its biodiversity was a collective responsibility of all citizens and everything ought to be done to ensure it was protected.
“We need to collectively protect our trees, wildlife and water resources from contaminations and degradation”, he said.
Mr. Hithramani thanked Olam Grains and the Forestry Commission of Ghana for supporting his district to bring improvement to the environment in the area. He assured them of the Assembly’s commitment towards ensuring that the trees were well catered for on daily basis by the Department of Agriculture and the Youth in Afforestation corps under the Youth Employment Agency.
World Environment Day is an annual event that is commemorated across the globe. The event has been celebrated since its inception 40 years ago.
This year’s global theme is “Biodiversity – Time for Nature” whereas the national level theme is “Protect Biodiversity, Our survival depends on it”. WED is a very important event aimed at changing human attitudes and behaviours towards effective management and protection of the environment.
By SavannahNewsOnline.Com/Philip Liebs
