Staff of VRA planted trees during the Green Ghana Day
The Volta River Authority (VRA) has since the inception of the Green Ghana Day initiative planted a total of 5,600 tree seedlings with a 92 percent survival rate in support of the Green Ghana project.
Benjamin Sackey, Director for Environment and Sustainable Development at the VRA speaking on behalf of the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Volta River Authority, Emmanuel Antwi-Darkwa during the Green Ghana Tree Planting Durbar said that the Authority has up to date religiously joined the national tree planting exercise.
Sackey together with other staff of the VRA undertook the planting of some 2,500 tree seedlings planting exercise across its work locations as part of activities marking this year's Green Ghana Day.
The Green Ghana Day initiative was introduced by the government in 2021, focusing on aggressive afforestation and reforestation programmes to restore the country's degraded forest cover.
This year's event targets the planting of 10 million tree seedlings nationwide.
Sackey noted that this year’s Green Ghana Day with the theme, “Growing for a Greener tomorrow,” highlighted the importance of the country’s forest cover to the current and future generations, adding that the massive greening campaign is not just a call to action but a beacon of hope and an epic step towards preserving the sanctity of our natural environment.
“Over the years, we have contributed significantly to these tree-planting efforts,” said Sackey. “These include initiatives such as planting 600 trees in all the VRA locations in 2021 when we celebrated our 60th anniversary, planting a degraded Sapawso Forest Extension Reserve in 2022 and planting in some designated areas within five Senior High Schools in the Asuogyaman District in 2023.”
Assessing the impact of the tree planting exercises over the past years which he said shows an impressively high survival rate that exceeds forestry set standards, he remarked: “Our recent assessment of the over 5,600 tree seedlings planted so far under the programme shows an impressive survival rate of 92% for the planted seedlings, well surpassing the forestry standard of 70%.”
Describing the undertaking as more than environmental stewardship, Sackey indicated that the feat reflected the Authority’s unwavering commitment as guardians of national development and proponents of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
He said, “In the age where the dialogue on sustainability, climate change resilience, and environmental protection dominates, we stand at the forefront, advocating for meaningful change.”
Stressing that the VRA had a key interest in sustainability, he urged colleagues to observe the event as a powerful reminder of the consequences that await humanity if we neglect our vegetative counterparts—climate change, desertification, soil erosion, and increased carbon footprints, among other dire outcomes.
He called on all and sundry to be proponents of change by imperatively embracing climate action through local and sustainable initiatives and to join hands in the greening journey and further called for a collective tree-planting responsibility to safeguard the environment for generations to come.
