In my previous two reports, I have been indicating to you activities that some people have been engaging themselves in that is destroying Ghana?s natural resources at varying degrees. We have been losing our forest cover to the logging of trees for timber and burning of charcoal, which has been going on for years without replacement/replanting. Illegal mining which has been referred to as ??galamsey?? has also had its toll on the destruction of Ghana?s natural resources, this activity has been responsible for the destruction of most all major water bodies in Ghana, forests, lands among other things.

The challenges stated above are very worrying, and more so, to imagine that people of much influence like traditional rulers and politicians are also engaged in this makes it a real challenge to be tackled. Even though I appreciate efforts being put in place by the government to address this, I believe the actions and inactions of the citizens towards making a change is very vital. Making a change should begin from a change in mindset, which did inform my commitment to engage the youth in discussions and practical activities that present to them the importance environmental stewardship.

In the past week, I have been engaging kids of the Sigri community who are on vacation, in some tree planting activities which saw us planting 35 Ache apple seedlings and 15 Acacia plants over a period of 4 days. Planting more trees to restock our carbon sink is very necessary if want to beat down on the effect of these activities which have been destroying almost every resource we can boast of. About a month ago, I nursed 100 seeds of the two species stated above with some students of the Sigri R/C junior high school in a backyard nursery we prepared. This activity has been a conscious effort to get the kids to appreciate how easy and fulfilling the whole process of planting trees can be. We used locally available materials for fencing these plants which were established at different places in the community such that, the students would be the ones to water or take care of them.

***** I?m however happy to indicate that, from nursery to planting of seedlings on the field was done at a zero financial cost due to the use of locally available materials and recycling of plastics. 

***** Participating students were appreciated with pens from tunza eco-generation.      

NB: pictures are unable to upload...I'll repost this article as and when the pics are able to upload