The Upper East Regional Directorate of the Environmental Protection Agency, has begun the distribution of 100,000 assorted tree seedlings to traditional councils and schools in the Region.
The seedlings included Mahogany, Moringa, Albizia, Grilicidia, Sepium, Cassia Papao, Cashew, rosewood among others.
Speaking to the Ghana News Agency during one of the distribution exercises, the Regional Director of the EPA, Mr Asher Nkegbe, said the exercise formed part of the “Greening Ghana Project” which is being implemented by the Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation (MESTI) and the EPA.
The Regional Director, who is also, the National Focal Person in Ghana for the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), said the project is aimed at increasing the vegetative cover and restoring the degraded areas of the region.
He said last year the EPA in collaboration with the Regional Coordinating Council, the Ghana Education Service (GES), the District and Municipal Assemblies, the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, the Forest Service Division, some churches and mosques carried out similar exercise.
Mr Asher Nkegbe said last year 16,899 assorted tree seedlings were handed over to the Regional Directorate of the Ghana Education Service for distribution to 166 selected schools in the Region.
“The survival rate of the trees which included grafted mangoes, moringa, mahogany, cashew, cassia, Albysia and teak is quite commendable and I would urge the traditional councils and school authorities to endeavour to initiate such activities”, he said.
He impressed upon the traditional authorities and the Directorate of the GES to institute effective supervision and monitoring measures to ensure that the tree seedlings were well catered for to help address land degradation situation in the region.
He said the Greening Ghana Project would help complement the existing landscape approach adopted by the EPA under the Ghana Environmental Management Project (GEMP) and the Ghana Sustainable Land and Water Management Project, which were all aimed at addressing environmental degradation by increasing vegetative cover, biodiversity and ecosystem services.
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