Thursday, 20th March, 2025
Hon Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah
Ellembele
Thank you Mr Speaker for the opportunity to address this august House on the eve of the International Day of Forests (IDF), a day globally observed, to raise awareness about the importance of all types of forests and trees for current and future generations. Declared by the United Nations General Assembly in 2012, this day encourages countries to organise local, national, and international activities, such as tree-planting campaigns, to promote forest conservation.
This year’s theme, “Forests and Foods”, aligns perfectly with our national quest for food security, improved nutrition, and sustainable livelihoods. Forests are vital sources of fruits, nuts, honey, medicinal plants, bush meat, and non-timber forest products, all of which support livelihoods. Beyond these, forests provide formal and informal employment, rich biodiversity for ecotourism, foreign exchange earnings through timber exports, and climate regulation. These multiple benefits underscore the urgent need to protect and restore our forests.
Mr Speaker, four weeks ago, I had the privilege of addressing this esteemed House on the urgent issues facing our nation, particularly the devastating impact of illegal mining, commonly referred to as galamsey, on our precious forests and water bodies. During that address, I emphasised the seriousness of the situation and outlined some of the actions being taken to combat this threat. Today, I am pleased to announce the launch of one of the flagship programs under our manifesto pledge and the Reset Ghana Agenda—The Tree for Life Reforestation Initiative.
This initiative will be launched on the Global Day of the Forests which is Friday, 21st March, 2025, in Nkawie, in the Amansie West District of the Ashanti Region. I would like to take this opportunity to extend a warm invitation to all of you to join His Excellency, President John Dramani Mahama, at this historic ceremony. The Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources, in collaboration with key stakeholders, is launching the Tree for Life Reforestation
Initiative to commemorate the International Day of Forests. This initiative aims to restore degraded landscapes, particularly areas ravaged by illegal mining and other drivers of deforestation, transforming them into ecologically functional landscapes. By promoting sustainable forest management, conservation, and reforestation, the initiative seeks to address critical issues such as biodiversity loss, water body pollution, climate change, and environmental degradation-challenges that pose an existential threat to our nation.
Mr Speaker, His Excellency, the President of the Republic, will officially launch this initiative on Friday, 21st March, 2025, paving the way for a series of activities under this intervention. These activities will include nationwide awareness campaigns on the importance of protecting our forests and environment.
Additionally, the initiative will focus on reclaiming degraded mined-out areas and re-vegetating them. Seedlings will be distributed to farmers for interplanting, particularly in cocoa farms. Farmers under the Modified Taungya System (MTS) will be encouraged to cultivate food crops in degraded forest reserves. In less degraded areas, enrichment planting will be employed to restore forests to their original state.
The initiative will also recruit youth as forest champions to provide services such as land preparation, tree planting, maintenance, and fire patrols. The private sector will play a significant role by planting over 7,000 hectares of trees during the rainy season. The trees to be planted will include fruit trees, timber, amenity trees, and multipurpose trees.
Mr Speaker, following the launch, the President will lead the nation in a massive tree-planting exercise dubbed “Make Ghana Green Month” in the first week of June. This exercise will continue throughout the month and into mid-July, allowing all Ghanaians and other nationals to participate in tree planting, taking full advantage of the rainy season.
Mr Speaker, I take this opportunity to invite all of you, state and non-state actors, school children, students, and the general public to support this initiative and participate in the upcoming events. The Forestry Commission and other institutions have already begun arrangements for seedling production and supply, ensuring that the required seedlings will be available in adequate quantities.
Mr Speaker, once again, I hope you will join us for the launch and implementation of the Tree for Life Reforestation Initiative this Friday in Nkawie, Ashanti Region to commemorate the Global Day of the Forest and make Ghana green once more.
Thank you, Mr Speaker.
Hon Davis Ansah Opoku
Mpraeso
Thank you very much, Mr Speaker.
I want to add my voice to the Statement ably read by the Minister responsible for Lands and Natural Resources.
As a country, it is important that we protect what I call national assets. Ghana’s forests are key national assets that ought to be protected at all costs and so the world forests day affords us an opportunity to look at how we are preserving our forests and what steps we are taking to protect them. So, it is important that as Members of Parliament we participate in the Global Day of Forests.
Mr Speaker, it would interest you to know that in the African continent, Ghana has one of the highest deforestation rates in Africa and on an annual basis, we lose close to about 135,000 hectares of forests. Some of the activities that have led to this loss is quite obvious. Illegal mining, galamsey activities, people engaging in unsustainable agriculture and logging of trees without proper permit among others have contributed significantly to this and as a country, we seem to be losing some of our major forests like the Atiwa Forest, the Kakum National Park, and Mole National Park. They are all under threats so I like the importance the Minister is placing on this day and I am urging Colleagues that we should all get involved.
Mr Speaker, there has been several efforts by successive governments to improve on our forest reserves. Some policy initiatives like the Ghana Forest Plantation Strategy. In 2021, the young Minister, Samuel Abdulai Jinapor launched a project that aimed to plant over 100 million trees by 2030 and these are all initiatives aimed at restoring our forests. It is instructive that the current Minister is continuing on this path and I urge him to do more. I have seen his exploits in Kumasi, he has been to the Ashanti Region and other places.
Mr Speaker, those involved in galamsey continue to destroy our river bodies and forests and I am praying the Minister clamps down on them. Just to add that in recent times, I have seen the Minister recruit some young men; water police, who would be protecting river bodies and forests.
Mr Speaker, what somebody asked on social media is that if able bodied military men could not protect our river bodies and forest reserves, what are these young men going to do? Probably, in the spirit of David and Goliath where David in a very skinny way could bring down Goliath, we are hoping that these young untrained men would be able to contribute to preserving our rivers and forests.
Mr Speaker, with this said, I commend the Minister and Government for their efforts in protecting our forests and I pray that if any of us sitting in this Chamber is contributing to the deforestation of our forests, That person must bow his or her head in shame. Thank you very much.
Hon Philip Fiifi Buckman
Kwesimintsim
Thank you very much, Mr Speaker.
I would like to add my voice to the call for Members to effectively participate in the tree planting exercise.
We all agree that when the last tree dies, the last man dies. I would want to humbly make a suggestion to the Minister, in tandem with what the earlier speaker said, that we have had several occasions where there have been these exercises: tree-planting, floriculture, et cetera, going on. But in the next year, we find that many of the trees that were planted get withered away.
So, the Minister could take into consideration making this tree-planting exercise a competition among schools, so that districts can carve areas where students would plant trees. The next year, any school which had its tree coming up very well and protected, would be rewarded during the 6th March or any event of that sort. Also, a call on all Ministers, Members of Parliament (MPs), and also chief executives who are yet to be appointed, to all put themselves to it because it is very important for all of us to ensure that trees are planted in our various areas.
Mr Speaker, I would also want to add, if in planting of these trees, we can have fruits. Schools would be given trees that bear fruits. So, even as the students plant them, in the near future, they are going to enjoy from it. So, it should be something that would not just be planting of trees, but in the near future, there would be some benefits from that.
That is my humble submission, Mr Speaker. Thank you.
Hon Kennedy Nyarko Osei
Akim Swedru
Mr Speaker, this is a very important Statement made by the Minister.
So, Leadership should not limit the contribution of such a very important Statement to just one on each Side. This is an equally important issue.
Mr Speaker, thank you very much for the opportunity to contribute to the Statement ably made by the Minister. World Forest Day is a very important day on the calendar, and I am particularly happy that ahead of the celebration, the Minister is here to make such a very important Statement.
Mr Speaker, over the years, every year, when we are celebrating it, we make so much noise on planting trees and all the other noises that we can make about it. But it is not enough just to be planting trees. We do not even take care of the trees when we plant them. That is one. And even while we are planting the trees, others are also in the bush, destroying the trees. So, what is the essence of it?
Mr Speaker, we all know climate change and its intended effects. Now, because of the destruction of our forests, food security has become a problem. We all know that the heat waves have become a very serious matter. So, I want to encourage the Minister that he should not only be interested in planting of the trees, not the numbers alone, but how we can protect those trees to make sure they grow. And those ones we have, we can protect them. We can destroy everything, but not the forests. It is a very important thing that we should not destroy, because that is where we even get our oxygen from. So, if we want to destroy it, that means one day all of us will die and leave. We cannot destroy the environment in our quest of looking for money, and leave a devastated and destructed environment for our children. I do not think that is the right thing to do. So, all of us should support.
We would do our best, but we are the people’s representatives. We need to take key interest in protecting our forests. It is not the responsibility of the Executives or those in power alone, but we represent the people. In our villages, in our districts, and in our constituencies, we need to take the matter up as Members of Parliament. That is why it is important for us to even be involved in climate issues. We have to join hands to deal with matters that can destroy our environment.
Mr Speaker, I want to thank you for the opportunity, and I want to encourage the Minister not to shy away from providing Members with whatever resources that it takes to protect these forests and make sure we do the right thing. He should make all those things available so that we can also support to enable all of us to protect our environment. Thank you very much.
Hon Gizella Akushika Tetteh-Agbotui
Awutu Senya West
Thank you very much, Mr Speaker. We thank the Hon Minister for the Statement.
In fact, there comes a time when there really has to be this cross-sectorial collaboration, and I am very happy. We at the Ministry of Works, Housing and Water Resources are very happy that these initiatives are taking place at the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources.
Mr Speaker, as we know, it is very important that we protect the headwaters of the water sources that we have in Ghana. This exercise would definitely take care of that aspect of protecting the headwaters, and also protecting the buffer zones that have been encroached upon on all the river areas in the country. It is very important that we take them one by one and do that. Much as we are trying to support with other activities, as in getting the young men who are going to protect the river bodies and all that, I think that their role should not only be towards the galamsey, but they can also play a dual role in protecting the tree species that will be planted by these riverbeds.
It is very important that they are protected. Otherwise, we would see that we would be planting them and yet, the survival rate will be very low. We really need to do this, because in the previous administration, yes, there was a Green Ghana Project, and some of us really took it very seriously, because we already have global biodiversity areas in our constituencies, and we wanted to make sure that we could enhance them and even make them a bit denser. So, I would encourage everybody to do that.
Mr Speaker, talking about forests, just look at the construction industry in Ghana. We realise that we do use a lot of timber resources for our roofing, formwork, and other parts of construction of all our buildings. I think that there also comes a time when we can also look at actually having a certain type of species planted for a specific industry. So, for the construction industry, for example, whereby maybe teak is used or wawa which is very commonly used, and other tree species, we can actually have them planted in every district, because construction goes on in every district has.
This should be an intentional program by the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources in collaboration with the Ministry of Works, Housing and Water Resources. And I believe that when that happens, we would have dedicated sources of timber to be able to use in the construction industry. Otherwise, as we would be growing on one side, and chopping off on another side. But we know the species that we need for the particular industries, and we should be intentional about planting those kinds of species.
Aside from that, Mr Speaker, I think that everyone in this Chamber, as we represent every constituency, we must be involved, whether we are in an urban area or in a rural area. It is very important in this day and age of climate issues. We really need to be intentional about some of these things, so I commend the Minister, and I want to assure him that all of us in this Chamber, I believe, will be supporting this initiative. After this, we also need an audit of what was done before because we need to know how far. We need an audit or an evaluation to be able to ascertain that the previous effort that was made by the previous Government has been able to make the impact that it was supposed to make.
Thank you, Mr Speaker.
Hon Collins Dauda
Asutifi South
Thank you very much, Mr Speaker.
First, I will commend the Minister for Land and Natural Resources for this effort. Without trees, we will all die. Therefore, it is important for all of us to get involved when it comes to developing forests and also protecting existing forests.
Mr Speaker, Ghana has lost a lot of forest cover. Growing up as a young man where I was born, on our way, from one point to the other, one will find monkeys jumping across roads because on both sides of every road, there was a forest. Today, you do not find the forest anymore. What we find today is grass, and grass cover is now taking over forests. It should tell us that there is need for us to all get involved in tree growing. This project of organising the whole country to plant trees started long ago, and it has become an annual practice where every Government does it. Therefore, we need to begin to assess what we have been able to achieve with this exercise, and how we do it.
Mr Speaker, over the years, we have held big durbars to launch tree planting or plantation development. We need to look at how much we spend on these launches in order that we save money to spend in growing trees. Besides that, we also need to find an efficient way of protecting what we inherited and what we are growing.
Mr Speaker, the plantations that were developed under President Kufuor, and Prof Evans Atta-Mills have grown, but they are under very serious attack by illegal galamsey operators. The area I come from is where you can find the Desiri Forest Reserve, and in that Reserve, because it is degraded, it has been encroached upon by farmers. Government decided to embark upon plantation development in this Forest Reserve. It has been replanted, but because of illegal chainsaw operators, the tree grows to a certain depth and we expect it to continue to grow and the next time one visits, the tree has been harvested by an illegal chainsaw operator.
Also, Mr Speaker, we may realise that wherever we plant trees in the middle belt of this country, where if we plant the trees, they will grow well, it is the same area where when we plant cocoa, the cocoa will do well. So, there is competition between the cocoa farmers and tree growers to the extent that when one plants the trees, the cocoa farmer closes his eyes, cuts the tree down and cultivates cocoa. I wish to draw attention of the Minister to that phenomenon. In order that where we designate as tree plantations, we must preserve it as such. Anytime you find farmers destroying trees that have been grown for the cultivation of cocoa, I will encourage them to cut the cocoa down. Otherwise, we will lose all our plantations in this country. Again, one of the ways to protect the reserves or protect the plantations we have, in my view, is that we have to deploy the military to permanently be based in these areas to protect them.
Mr Speaker, the practice has been that we mobilise them, they go to the foreign reserve where we suspect illegal activities go on, and as soon as they leave, the illegal operators take over the area again. Therefore, the best way, in my view, is to deploy permanently, the military to protect our forests and to also protect our water bodies. I cannot understand why our water bodies will be polluted. Anytime we send the military, they run away, but when the military move, they come back. So, if we want to protect them, why do we not make it a permanent effort? So, I will encourage the Minister to liaise with his Colleague, the Minister for Defence, to see the possibility of deploying the military permanently to protect our water bodies and our forest reserves.
Mr Speaker, the Minister must also take a look at how our forest estate is being managed. We have a standard practice; an internationally accepted practice, where when one cuts, one does not go there until after 40 years. After 40 years, when one goes to where one started harvesting, the forest would have recovered, rejuvenated back into a forest. Today, because of the way we allocate timber resources to operators, we cannot ensure proper sustainable management practices of our forest. Well, if we give one compartment to an operator, how do we expect a person to manage it over 40 years? It is not possible. One is asking to go and clear-fell the trees in the forest. It is an area the Hon Minister must watch.
Mr Speaker, we all have to support this venture, and I wholeheartedly support my Colleague, the Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, and I plead with all my Colleagues and everybody in this country to support the Minister in order that it will be successful. Tree-growing is a venture that will create jobs, and one of the biggest challenges of this country is to provide jobs for the youth. Therefore, if we are successful with this, coming along is the provision of jobs for our boys.
I thank you very much for this opportunity, Mr Speaker.
Hon Jerry Ahmed Shaib
Weija-Gbawe
Thank you very much, Mr Speaker.
Mr Speaker, I rise to support the Statement made by the Hon Minister for Lands and Natural Resources. First of all, I commend him for making this Statement.
Mr Speaker, the International Day of the Forest is 21st March, 2025, and I think it is the right time for the Hon Minister to have brought this Statement to this Floor.
Mr Speaker, I am looking at it from three angles, with reference to conservation, preservation and restoration or reforestation. Mr Speaker, socially, what we have to do as the Parliament of Ghana and as Ghanaians is to, first of all, intensify the education on tree planting.
Mr Speaker, by intensifying the education on tree planting, we should have the focus of getting our younger ones to understand that to have trees is to have life. We should educate them on how to have gardens in their backyards and to plant trees all over the place. The former Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Hon Samuel Abdulai Jinapor, started a project like this. I would have thought that we would have continued the project without just unnecessarily labelling or relabeling the project. Because the project that was started by Hon Samuel Abdulai Jinapor, which is the Green Ghana Project, is just the same as what we are now seeing today, which is ‘Make Ghana Green Month’.
Mr Speaker, if we are not careful, our focus would be the politicisation of projects and not rather the execution of these projects. This is a fine project, and if the consideration is that all Ghanaians should be on board, then it matters not what the name of the project is, but how well we are ready to ensure that the project comes to stay.
Mr Speaker, politically, what are we doing with tree planting? I have sighted a few write-ups, including one from a journalist who had questioned the Hon Minister on how many forest reserves we have. The last time the Minister was here to make a Statement, he indicated that seven out of nine forest reserves had been taken back from illegal miners.
And Mr Speaker, if we are to ask that we should list these forests that have been taken back, we may even have issues with these forests. My view is that we should concentrate on doing things without necessarily politicising them. If we should go ahead to publish or educate our people on how to deal with issues of tree planting, we should do that against the backdrop that we are one people, we are one Ghana, and it is not just about making statements about how many we have been able to take when it may not actually be the case.
Mr Speaker, economically, we are also very aware that there is an interconnection between food security and forest preservation. If we are able to ensure that our forests are not inundated by galamseyers, then we can also have the best food for our people.
Mr Speaker, as I conclude, I just want to commend the Minister for bringing this Statement to the Floor and to still raise the issue of dealing with issues from a non-political point of view so that the Ghanaian people would all be in support and all hands would be on deck.
Thank you very much, Mr Speaker, for this opportunity.
Hon Ayariga Mahama
Bawku Central
Thank you very much, Mr Speaker.
Mr Speaker, let me join Colleagues in commending the Minister for coming to this House on the International Day of Forests to make a Statement to highlight the importance of the day; the importance of conserving our forests and the importance of planting trees; what trees do for us as human beings, what it does for our planet, what it does for our food security and what it does for our environment.
Mr Speaker, I think that in the last week, this Minister has been here a couple of times and the theme of major policy communications that have been made have bordered on trees, the protection of our forests from illegal mining activities and even legal mining activities. And I say legal mining activities because just a couple of days ago, the President directed the Minister for Environment, Science and Technology to lay in this House a Legislative Instrument (L. I) that would take away the power of the President to authorise mining in forest reserves.
This clearly demonstrates the commitment of the President, John Dramani Mahama, to preserve our forests. So he has no problem with taking away the power vested in him, by this House, to grant concessions for mining minerals in forest reserves.
Mr Speaker, this is a significant milestone in the effort of the Government to protect our forest reserves. But so much damage has been done to our forests due to illegal mining activities and, in some cases, legal mining activities.
But, Mr Speaker, when I was Minister for Environment, Science and Technology, I visited one of the big mining companies in this country. They took me to an area where they were engaged in open pit mining and I saw huge excavations and disturbance of the land. I was worried as a Minister for Environment. Then they drove me several kilometres to another location where I saw a thick forest and we alighted. They asked me what I saw and I said, I saw a forest. And they told me that where I was standing was mined the same way where I went earlier, where huge excavations took place. And after mining, they took and implemented a restoration programme and achieved this thick forest that I was seeing.
Mr Speaker, I am making the point that no matter how the earth has been disturbed, no matter what excavations have taken place when we put in place the policy measures and are committed, we can restore every inch of our forest. We just need a coordinated strategic plan that we will be committed to and implement, and we can restore every forest that we have lost.
So, it is a question of commitment. How do we organise ourselves to achieve the implementation of those commitments? The Statement highlights a programme that the Government is putting in place to plant trees so that we can achieve that. But very often for the past eight years, we have been making those statements. We have actually had big occasions where we gather and plant trees. But today if we ask ourselves to go and account for forests established on the basis of those tree planting exercises, we will be found wanting. Not because we did not plant the trees or spend money, but simply because we may not have organised ourselves well.
Mr Speaker, there should be a paradigm shift in our afforestation programme. We should be more deliberate about it. Let us have a programme on an annual basis to decide that we are going to plant 1,000, 2,000, 3,000 or 10,000 acres of a woodlot so that in six years’ time when this House wants the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources to account, we can just walk to that location and see whether there is a forest standing there.
Mr Speaker, we can also involve Members of Parliament to get space in their constituencies that can be designated for tree planting. Resources can be made available so that on an annual basis we will plant trees, and in four years, we will ask them to account.
Mr Speaker, when we organise ourselves and know the specific locations, the acreage, and how much money was spent, accountability is easy. But if we just organise big ceremonies with seedlings and distribute them, others will plant, and others may not plant. Those who may plant may not have the time to follow up and nurture those trees to grow. And yet this State would have spent enormous money, following a commitment, but not realising it.
So, Mr Speaker, I urge a paradigm shift in our approach to tree planting. Mr Speaker, lastly, how do we preserve the forests that already exist? What do people need the trees for when they harvest them? What is the basis of the demand for wood? That is where we should pay attention. If people are using wood for roofing their houses, can we change our building regulations and codes so that we can regulate the extent to which wood will be used and timber will be used for construction? That way, we reduce the demand for those products.
Mr Speaker, for cooking and domestic use, can we expand the use of gas for cooking so that we distribute them and then people will not have the incentive to fell those trees in order to transform it into charcoal and use as energy? So, let us look at the demand side, look for alternatives and invest in those alternatives so that we can push down the demand for those products; and that is how we protect the forest. When you kill the demand for a product, you protect the product. So, we must invest in those alternatives.
Mr Speaker, on that note, let me thank the Minister for coming. Let me assure him that as many Members of Parliament as may be available would make time to join him on this auspicious occasion when he is marking the International Day of Forests and to support him. And this House will continue to support him. Given that we will soon pass a legislation regulating carbon trading and the pension of Members of Parliament will depend on how many trees we protect and how many trees we plant, we believe that our pensions will now be tied to the protection of trees and forests in this country. And when we tie the pensions of Members of Parliament to how many trees are in the country and how much carbon is available to be traded, I have every confidence that MPs will be galvanised and mobilised and very committed to protecting our forests and we will really see significant progress in that regard.
Thank you very much, Mr Speaker.
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