Aburi Gardens to be revived

THE Akuapem South District Assembly in the Eastern Region is putting measures in place to revive the ‘dying’ Aburi Botanical Gardens.

The Aburi Botanical Gardens (about 45 minutes drive from Accra) has rich green flora gardens. Besides, it offers a beautiful backdrop for fun activities like biking, barbecuing or even taking a relaxing stroll.

The DCE who revealed this to DAILY GUIDE during an exhibition forum said concerning the measures to revive the garden, the focus of the exhibition is to get as many people as possible visiting the place during such days.

According to Mr. Aidoo, the rich heritage of the garden cannot be made to go to waste hence the need to revive it. He pleaded with tourists not to forget to consider Aburi Gardens as the place of choice whenever they are making their tourism choices.

The DCE said the assembly was promoting a lot of activities within the garden to get people to visit the place and also revive the local economy of Aburi.

He added that some of the activities include an institution of annual exhibition of Ghanaian foods, crafts and artifacts, among others, in the garden.

He said the exercise had been a massive success this year and they were hoping for many more successes in the coming years, adding that the assembly was expecting about 50 organisations to exhibit their products. “However, we had in excess of 100 organisations,” he revealed.

Mr. Aidoo asserted that the assembly was also putting other measures in place aside from the exhibition to make sure the garden regains its lost glory.

The Aburi DCE indicated that the focus of the exhibition was on the revival of the garden and the local economy, not monetary benefits for the assembly.

However, he was optimistic that a revived Aburi Botanical Gardens would mean an increase in the Internally Generated Fund (IGF) of the assembly subsequently.

The garden occupies an area of 64.8 hectares. It was opened in March 1890. Before the garden was established, it was the site of a sanatorium built in 1875 for Gold Coast government officials. During the governorship of William Brandford-Griffith, a Basel missionary supervised clearing of land around the sanatorium to start the Botanic Department.

In 1890, William Crowther, a student from the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, was appointed the garden’s first curator. The garden, a true eco-paradise, was created for public use as well as scientific research.

The garden played an important role in encouraging cocoa production in South Ghana, by supplying cheap cocoa seedlings and information about scientific farming methods. It also encouraged rubber production in Ghana.