Club plants 700 acacia seedlings at Acherensua, Goaso

Members of the Environmental Club of the Bronsankro Campus of the College of Renewable Natural Resources have planted about 700 acacia seedlings in the Acherensua and Goaso communities in Brong Ahafo.

The seedlings supplied by the Forestry Division of the Forestry Service at Goaso, were planted at vantage points in both towns including the Goaso Government Hospital and the Acherensua Secondary School premises.

The two-day exercise, jointly sponsored by the Forestry Division and the German Technical Co-operation (GTZ) was part of the students' afforestation outreach campaign for the semester.

Mr Isaac Adjei Mensah, secretary, told the Ghana News Agency that the club was motivated by the desire to raise and sustain awareness among individuals and groups to help save the nation's remaining forests from further depletion.

He expressed the hope that increased awareness on afforestation and effective utilisation of forest products would help to curtail the current uncontrolled destruction of Ghana's forests.

The club and its sponsors he said, had put in place mechanisms tailored to nurture and sustain the trees to maturity.

Among the strategies he said were regular monitoring and evaluation visits to both towns to ensure the growth of the trees as expected to make the desired impact on the project areas.

Mr Adjei Mensah urged forest products users, especially timber merchants, to comply with provisions of the Forestry Service Act, which mandated them to replace all renewable resources destroyed in the forests.

He said the club intended to extend the tree planting exercise to other communities in subsequent semesters to buttress the importance of afforestation and protection of the environment.