Founding President of IMANI Africa, Franklin Cudjoe, has advised the government to focus this year’s Green Ghana Day tree-planting exercise on all illegal mining sites in the country.
President Akufo Addo, on Friday, June 7, launched the 2024 edition of the exercise in a ceremony held at Burma Camp, Accra. It is the fourth edition since its inception in 2021.
According to the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources, the target for the 2024 Green Ghana Day is to plant at least 10 million trees with a budget of GHS 1.5 million.
Reacting to the news, Franklin Cudjoe said it would be better if this year’s project is focused on all the lands affected by illegal mining activities popularly known as ‘galamsey’.
According to him, doing so will help the government save enough money which could be channelled into solving other problems such as furniture deficits in various schools across the country.
“Tree planting is good. However it would be wise to focus this year’s tree planting exercise on all Galamsey sites so we use the rest of the money to provide basic furniture for Joy News’ ‘schools of shame’,” he wrote in a social media post.
Though nearly every part of the country has lost some vegetation cover and needs replacement, Franklin Cudjoe’s suggestions may be the best choice due to the extensive impact of galamsey on many lands. If the suggestion is heeded, Ghana could gradually recover some of the arable lands lost to galamsey over the years. Research shows that planting trees on lands degraded by mining activities can help restore the land to its arable state.