Re-afforestation Campaign Intensified

Better collaboration between the Ministry of Food and Agriculture and the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources is needed as Ghana looks to overcome deforestation and desertification.

As the government scales up agriculture production with the Planting for Food and Job's programme, there is the concern that replacing forest cover with crops is ultimately detrimental to the environment.

But a researcher with an NGO, Nature and Development Foundation, Glenn Asomaning, says the government can strike a balance between environmental protection and agriculture production with more interaction between the Ministry of Food and Agriculture and the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources.

“Sometimes, even though the Ministry of food and Agriculture sits so close to the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources, there is virtually no interaction as it were, and I think that this is something we should promote moving forward,” Mr. Asomaning said on the Citi Breakfast Show.

He noted that agriculture had a strong impact on the environment, but a national policy was needed to ensure the best interest of the environment.

“We have had different methods of plantation establishment and different methods of crop establishment where issues of environment and issues of forests are always taken into consideration where you see some kind of a mix. In fact, we have different approaches. Agroforestry is one of them. We’ve had different designs where we have trees hare and crops there and at the end of the day, you don't create a detrimental effect on the environment.”

Mr. Asomaning was clear that a new approach to protecting the environment was needed because as it stands now, Ghana loses about 65,000 hectares of forest every year due to climate change.

This climate change has also manifested in changing rainfall patterns in Ghana as the Savannah zone now experiences lesser rainfall as compared to previous years.

The government has over the years put in place programmes to stem the tide with a number of tree planting programmes.

Earlier in 2018, the government engaged the services of 20,000 men and women across the country, to combat deforestation and desertification, reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss within Ghana's forests.

Environmental activists have also urged some restraint from the government when it comes to the exploration of mineral resources in forest reserves.

For instance, protesters walked from Kyebi in the Eastern Region to Accra, in a bid to put pressure on government to preserve the Atewa forest reserve against any form of mining activity.

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