About 288 trees have been planted from the Tetteh Quarshie Interchange to the Legon ECG Park in Accra as part of celebrations of the 40th anniversary of the June 4 Revolution.
Led by former President Jerry John Rawlings, the exercise was organised in collaboration with the Forestry Commission and the Zoomlion Ghana Limited.
It was to encourage Ghanaians to protect the country’s vegetation and avoid the indiscriminate felling of forest trees for commercial and industrial use without replacing them and allowing the natural forest to regenerate.
The 40th anniversary of the June 4 uprising, is under the theme “Developing a National Character for Sustainable Good Governance.”
Addressing the participants, former President Rawlings described deforestation as an illegal practice which causes great damage and destruction to the country’s vegetation and some other resources that affects economic growth.
He advised the citizenry to inculcate and adapt the culture of protecting the environment and implement proactive measures to minimise the impacts of climate change in the country.
He charged the law enforcement agencies across the country to ensure the laws governing the country’s environment and sanitation were enforced for positive outcomes.
Sensitisation of Ghanaians, Mr Rawlings said, was crucial in addressing environmental and forest degradation and called on civil societies, government agencies and state institutions as well as the media to support in reducing the risk of these activities and its accompanying negative effects on national development.
Dr Joseph Siaw Agyepong, Executive Chairman of Jospong Group, urged the media to intensify campaign and education against the indiscriminate felling of trees, littering among others, which were hinderances to the country’s economic growth.
He said that measures had been put in place to prevent encroachers from destroying the newly planted trees along the streets of Accra and warned that anyone who flouted the law would be dealt with.
He noted that his outfit would continue to plant more trees and urged members of the public to support the initiative to make the streets of Accra clean and beautiful and commended the former President for the tree planting exercise initiative as part this year’s celebrations.
BY EVANGEL KELVIN AINOO
