Ghana NGO launches project to restore vegetative cover

Accra, June 13 (IANS/MAP) An environmental NGO has launched a tree planting project to assist in restoring the vegetative cover of mined areas in Ghana.

Bonaventure Kwame Takpah, Executive Director of Alliance for Environmental Intervention (AfEI), said the project was launched in partnership with the Forestry Commission, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Centre for Environmental Research and Policy Analysis.

Dubbed "one child, one tree project", the initiative targets children in mining communities and seeks to inspire and motivate them to take responsibility for the environment, according to the report on Tuesday.

Takpah told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) that the children would be encouraged to plant and nurture trees to bring back the forest cover.

Ghana reportedly lost 2.51 million hectares or 33.70 per cent of the forest cover between 1990 and 2010, representing an annual average loss of 2.03 per cent, during the period.

The estimated annual average deforestation rate for year 2011 and 2012, was also put at 1.37 per cent.

This compared with the low afforestation effort provides ominous signs of trouble in terms of biodiversity and climate change, said Takpah.

He said that there was the need for urgent response to halt the degradation and promote sustainable forest management.

--IANS/MAP

soni/dg