As the world marks Environmental Day today, June 5, 2021, we should focus our attention on some human activities that impact negatively on the environment and the need to reverse the trend and support initiatives meant to safeguard the vegetation.

This year’s celebration, themed ‘Ecosystem Restoration,’ would reinforce the essence of tree planting, cleaning up the environment, and preservation of water bodies, among other activities to help conserve the environment.

On Friday, June 11, the Green Ghana Initiative which would see to the planting of five million trees across the country would kick off. Its long term objective is to return the country’s landscape, which had been affected by illegal mining and lumbering and other human activities, to its past glory.

Apart from sanitation challenges the country is tackling, the impact of illegal lumber and indiscriminate felling of trees is rife in the Savannah Region, where there is an alarming rate of logging for charcoal production.

Some governmental and non-governmental organisations, in an attempt to halt the trend, had recommended a ban on commercial production of charcoal and suggested alternative sources of fuel for rural folks.

But it appears the practice would not stop anytime soon as economic trees such as shea and rosewood continue to be logged in large quantities for charcoal.

Trees and forests provide a myriad of ecological services such as water supply, maintaining soil fertility for purposes of agriculture, and serve also as habitat for animals and other living things.

It is for this reason that Mr. Yussif Abdul-Mumin, Chief Executive Officer of United Force for Development, a non-governmental organisation based in the Northern Region, has urged the citizens to “take deliberate steps to help heal the earth” on the occasion of World Environmental Day and beyond.

He agrees that the citizen’s effort towards environmental conservation through tree planting, especially in urban areas would, to a large extent, contribute to dealing with issues of climate change.

Pictures captured here by our photographer, Mr. Geoffrey Buta, stress the importance for all citizens to join global, regional and local environmental restoration efforts, to help prevent the loss of plant and animal species, enhance food and water supply, and help improve livelihoods.

By Geoffrey Buta