Global warming: Ghana plants 5 million trees in a day to fight forest depletion

A countrywide campaign to save Ghana's diminishing forest reserves kicked off with a major drive to plant five million trees.

The government offered free seedlings to people from all walks of life, including celebrities, politicians, lawmakers, traditional leaders, and schoolchildren, as part of the "Green Ghana" campaign.

According to environmentalists, the increase of farming, and to a lesser extent mining and logging, has resulted in significant levels of deforestation in Ghana.

According to Forestry Commission estimates, forest cover in the West African gold miner has decreased to less than a fifth of what it was in the 1990s.

President Nana Akufo-Addo planted a commemorative tree in the garden of Jubilee House, the official seat in the capital, Accra, along with religious and philanthropic organisations and chiefs of several ethnic groups.

Samuel Abu Jinapor, lands and natural resources minister of Ghana said that “The aim of Green Ghana is to save us now and our future generations. We can’t fail our future leaders.”

Ghana is one of the tropical countries in the world with the highest rate of rainforest loss.

According to government figures, Ghana's current forest cover is 1.6 million hectares (about 4 million acres), down from 8.2 million hectares (20 million acres) in 1900.

Small-scale gold mining and uncontrolled tree felling without appropriate regeneration have wreaked havoc on the country's ecosystem.