Non-Govermental Organisation Action an NGO dubbed Action Youth for Development- Ghana has marked the celebration of international day of forests with numerous life changing activities in the Bono East region.
The organization which is Non-governmental (NGO) was formed to empower and nurture the vulnerable and the less privileged people for the achievement their goals thus to train, equip and support the vulnerable in the society in order to meet their social, economic and health needs.
The UN General Assembly (UNGA) proclaimed 21 March in every year is earmarked as the International Day of Forests in 2012.
The Day celebrates and raises awareness of the importance of all types of forests.
On each International Day of Forests, countries are encouraged to undertake local, national, and international efforts to organize activities involving forests and trees, such as tree planting campaigns.
According to the Director of the aforementioned organization, 21st March every year is Earmarked as international day of the forests and this year’s celebration is under the theme “Forest and Health.
He said, the theme is in line with the vision of his organisation, that is to promote human and environmental health as well as safeguarding our forest.
Read below the statement .
Press Statement from Action Youth for Development-GHANA
21st March every year is marked as international day of the forest. This year’s celebration is under the theme “Forest and Health.
The theme is in line with our vision as an organisation, that is to promote human and environmental health as well as safeguarding our forest.
According to UN-REDD, forests are home to about 80% of the world’s terrestrial biodiversity and an estimated 1.6 billion people use forests for all or part of their livelihoods such as food, shelter, energy and income. Millions, including people in cities, depend on forest resources for clean air and fresh water.
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) indicates in its 2020 Report “The State of the World’s Forests” that the total forest area is 4.06 billion hectares, or approximately 5,000m2 (or 50 x 100m) per person, but forests are not equally distributed around the globe.
Ghana loses 11% of its GDP to environmental and forest related consequences, the World Bank Group’s new Country Climate and Development Report (CCDR) for Ghana estimates that at least one million more people could fall into poverty due to climate shocks, if urgent climate actions are not taken. Income could reduce by up to 40% for poor households by 2050. On this day that the world is celebrating the forest we recommend adopting an integrated approach to agriculture and environmental management by fostering integrated landscape management, promoting climate-smart agriculture, and supporting adaptation of coastal communities.
Let’s therefore all endeavour to plant and take good care of a tree in life. We should also avoid burning of our Forest and indescrimate felling of trees. The famous phrase that says “when the last tree dies, the Last person dies” reminds us to be responsible and do everything in our power to protect the forest and the environment from harm.
It is our strong belief that as we join the whole wide world to celebrates this day, we should educate our people to love the Forest and keep it healthy.
May God bless us all and our forest in Ghana.
-singed-
Nanga Joseph Nyindam
Executive Director
0248977519
By Lawrence Odoom/ghanaxpress.com