By Fatima Anafu-Astanga.
Bawku (UE), May 17, GNA- About 8,000 trees, making 40 per cent of the 21,000 tree seedlings procured by the Forestry Commission (FC) in the Bawku Municipality, under the Green Ghana project, survived last year.
Mr Emmanuel Omane, the Bawku Municipal Manager of the FC said 160,000 tree seedlings had been procured for the Municipality and it was expected that 120,000 tree seedlings would be planted, starting from May and to be finished by end of June 2022.
Mr Omane was speaking in an interview with the Ghana News Agency in Bawku after a Consultative meeting between the Forestry Commission (FC) and stakeholders to prepare for the second phase of the Green Ghana Project.
He said the trees survived harsh weather conditions, extreme heat, very low atmospheric moisture under the dry harmattan and animal browsing.
“From experience of the last year planting, we will want to do early planting considering the target this year and if we don’t start early we will not be able to achieve the target set for this year,” he said.
‘We are praying for good rains this year”, Mr Omane noted, and indicated that the new project would Introduce four species that were also site matching ones.
“In our part of the country the neem does well anywhere and we will want to focus on the savannah Mahogany and especially trees that normally do well such as ‘albeicia’, and ‘Acacia’.
He noted that some stakeholders who collected the tree seedlings last year could not account for them and therefore activities mapped out would include checking of sites chosen for the planting exercise to ensure they were good areas in terms of soil fertility, species and adaptability.
The consultations aimed to introduce the project, pick concerns from the initial project and engage the stakeholders to take up tree protection activities even after the planting exercise.
The stakeholders included; Ghana Education Service, Religious Bodies; the District Assemblies, Non-governmental Organizations (NGOs) and Traditional authorities.
GNA
