Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, Samuel Abu Jinapor, has warned that the effect of climate change makes it imperative for all Ghanaians to take interest and participate in the Green Ghana project.
The climate crisis, he said, is reaching a tipping point with experts warning greenhouse gas emissions are at their highest levels in 2 million years and continuing to rise.
According to him, the Earth is now 1.1℃ warmer than it was in the late 1800s, with the last decade being the warmest period; melting ice and glaciers in the Antarctic, changing rain patterns, drying up rivers and streams and raising sea temperatures.
Speaking on the importance of the Green Ghana Day tree planting exercise scheduled for tomorrow Friday 10th January, 2022, the Lands Minister stated Ghana is experiencing the impact of climate change with a 1℃ increase in temperature in the last three decades.
He said, “The effect of this on our daily lives are obvious, tidal waves sweeping over coastal communities, frequent droughts, perennial floods, temperature rise, erratic rainfall patterns, food insecurity and poverty, among others.”
“According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), limiting global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius, is necessary to avoid the worst impacts of climate change and maintain a liveable climate.”
“But, at the current rate, global warming is projected to reach 3.2 degrees Celsius by the end of the century,” he added.
According to Mr. Jinapor, the solution to this climate crisis can be obtained within the world’s forests, which act as the ‘Lungs of the Earth’ and play a crucial role in the sustainability of the planet and human survival, by absorbing carbon dioxide and contributing to emission reduction.
The world, he said, loses 150 acres of rainforest every single day and stressed the rate of deforestation remains alarming and need urgent and vigorous intervention to reverse this trend of depletion.
Deforestation and forest degradation, he said, continue to be the greatest threat to sustainable natural resources management, and its dire consequences on lives and livelihoods.
He stated it is to reverse this disturbing situation that in 2021 President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo launched the Green Ghana Project as part of an aggressive afforestation and reforestation programme.
The key objectives of the Project, he said, are to create enhanced national awareness of the necessity for collective action towards restoration of degraded landscapes in the country, inculcate values of planting and nurturing of trees in the youth, mitigate climate change and beautify communities and environment.
He indicated that last year the tree planting exercise exceeded its target of five million trees when seven million trees were planted eventually.
He stated this year the Ministry is committed to plant at least 20 million trees across the country on Friday; 10 seedlings in forest reserves and 10 million outside reserved areas.
Mr. Jinapor urged Ghanaians to pick seedlings from the nearest point, plant it, take a picture, post it on social media with the hashtag ‘Green Ghana’ and nurture the tree to maturity.
Ghanaians and all those within the jurisdiction, he said, have a collective responsibility to leave future generations and their communities with richer, better and more valuable forests and wildlife endowment.