Ghana plants 5 million trees in reforestation campaign

Five million trees to be planted Friday through Ghana, through the "Operation

" (Green Ghana) conducted by the government which aims to encourage the reforestation of this West Africa.

The country now has 1.6 million hectares of forest against 8.2 million at the start of the 20th century, according to statistics from the Ministry of Land and Natural Resources.

To read also: The “fronts of deforestation” are multiplying on the planet

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Modern deforestation and significant environmental degradation are due in particular to the formal and informal exploitation of gold, which abounds in Ghana's subsoils, but also to population growth and illegal logging.

The Ghanaian government has decided to make seeds of three kinds of trees available to the entire population: villagers, high public figures, parliamentarians, community leaders, schools so that students can plant them. “

”Samuel Abu Jinapor, Ghanaian Minister of Land and Natural Resources, told AFP on Friday. “

", He added, assuring that the government was committed to ensure the follow-up of the plantations, by organizing an annual day dedicated to the preservation of these new plantations.

A global problem

Côte d'Ivoire, a neighboring country of Ghana, also launched last year a “

”, a practical phase of the forest policy which aims to recover “

”.

Deforestation due to the cultivation of cocoa, of which the country is the world's largest producer of beans, reduced from sixteen million hectares in 1960 to two million hectares currently the area of ​​the Ivorian forest, according to experts from the environment.

But the problem is global. In May, deforestation reached a record level for this month in the Brazilian Amazon, with an increase of 41% compared to May 2020, which resulted in the deforestation of an area of ​​1,180 km2 of the largest tropical forest in the world.