The European Union (EU), has held a roundtable discussion to commemorate this year’s Environment Day, in Accra.
The event was to analyse available options to re-greening Ghana, to identify and propose ideas and solutions to involve communities and to increase the sustainability of forests and trees in Ghana.
Mrs. Diana Acconcia, the EU Ambassador to Ghana, hosted the event with the participation of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA), governmental organisations, and non-governmental organisations (NGOs), the Green Ghana Initiative, Embassies and Development Partners of the Environment and Natural Resources Working Group.
The EU has been in the front line of climate action and keen in promoting a learning dialogue and building support for the structural change necessary for the transition to low-emission, climate-resilient societies, particularly among younger generations whose futures are the most threatened by climate change.
“Climate change is closely linked with forests. Forests are indispensable to our life support system. The air we breathe is from forests, we rely on forests for foods, biodiversity, energy and more,” a news brief said.
It said, “Protecting and restoring world’s forests is crucial for maintaining and increasing human well-being and putting our societies on to a sustainable path.”
The brief said recently, the Government of Ghana launched an initiative to plant five million trees, adding that the AMA also had the initiative to make Accra Greener.
It said the EU was supporting projects that worked in the area, such as REACH (Resilience against Climate Change) and Re-greening Ghana.
It said the two projects would explain their integrated approaches on tree planting and the involvement of the communities in the process, to increase the survival rate of the trees.
It said for example, REACH project planted 22,000 trees in 2020 with a survival rate of 82 percent, considered good.
The brief said Ghanaian NGOs also had several initiatives to promote and create awareness on reforestation.
