Kofi Anokye
Tree planting should be introduced as one of the subjects taught students of building, Architecture and civil engineering if we want it to be deemed and treated as important part of our development.
With the ever increasing rate of deforestation, changes in rainfall pattern and the world’s decision to enforce the Paris Treaty, which Ghana is a signatory, one of the ways by which we can continue to maintain the kind of environment conducive for our continues existence and to maintain the quality of air we breathe is to keep trees alive and aplenty.
[ads1]Unfortunately, trained builders and developers of our environment don’t study tree Planting in details at any level of their education as builders and that explains why tree planting isn’t treated with the seriousness it deserves when building in this country.
With tree planting as a subject area, our Building and Architecture Engineers will have in-depth knowledge on how to plant trees, where to plant what tree and ideal time to plant these trees because sometimes the position of the tree and distance to the building can have negative repercussion on the building in the future. There’s so much involved in tree planting that without formalizing it, a lot of mistakes will be made
The existences of trees walk hand in with the existence of the human race. I hope you remember the popular saying that: when the last tree dies, the last man dies.
Since starting my real estate business over the last 18 years I have tried my best to plant not less than 20,000 trees within the 3 environments that I have built. My company has also hosted not less 100 students on attachment and countless as full-time workers since its inception.
What is common among all these people is that they lacked requisite knowledge on what goes into tree planting: something I had to learn outside the four walls of the classroom.
I have also seen many works of our competitors within the industry and I can conclude without any reservation that about 90 percent of the players lack the basic knowledge of tree planting.
Over the years I have listened and admired one man, Nana Dzomoh Sarpong on his lonely journey of protecting our water bodies and other individuals who have dedicated their lives for one cause or the other. I believe his call played a key role in government’s decision to fight illegal and unethical mining with all the state’s accoutrements
When it comes to tree planting though, we don’t have many dedicated voices, if any to conscientize our people or much commitment from state actorsto make it integral in our development.
Currently my company is hosting 3 attachment students from one of the Technical Universities and they know very little about tree planting.
This is what moved me to write this piece
These are people being trained to build our environment. In view of this, we have to make it a point to make them competent in tree planting.
Tree planting shouldn’t end at advocacy: it should be a law, a subject and mandatory part for every building
It must be enforced in the approval of buildings and the absence of it physically should result in fines and discontinuation of the building until the right thing is done.
Evidence of planted trees should be seen when the Assembly visits the project site.
As a country, we cannot sit aloof and leave the planting of trees in the hands of Civil Society Organisations alone, it must be made a national agenda, it must be forced and enforced
In this day of global warming and inconsistencies in the atmospheric condition, we need trees to safeguard our very existence.
Trees enrich the oxygen we breathe: Science has proven that trees provide oxygen for humans after absorbing the carbon dioxide in the environment.
The existence of trees also mean that the atmosphere will be cooler and encourage energy conservation because it is the absence of cold wind that has led many people to use high energy consuming air conditions in their rooms.
With trees, many people will put off their air conditions and enjoy the breeze.
Rarely do you see roofs in areas with many trees ripped off by storm. It is uncommon because tree protects the building by absorbing a substantial part of the pressure from the wind
Additionally, trees protect our environment from erosion.
Trees bring beauty and the feel of nature to the environment and therefore should be a key addition to modernized Ghana being created.
In view of the above points, making it a subject area will send the signal that we are truly committed to this as a nation.
Builders should be trained to have comprehensive knowledge on matters of environment because they design and build our environment.
Aside that, the government should make it mandatory for every house to have at least a tree planted in the house with sanctions for refusal to do that
This will definitely underline our commitment to protecting the environment in the face of global warming and make our signing of the Paris Treaty not just for the sake of it but a cause we are truly committed to
We can’t bequeath an environment worse than we met it to the next generation
I hope someone is listening
Kofi Anokye
CEO- Koans Building Solutions