The project is a collaborative effort between the Akyem Abuakwa Presbytery of the PCG and Osagyefo Amoatia Ofori Panin as part of his 20th anniversary celebration as the Okyenhene.

Speaking at a special service to launch the project at the Ebenezer Congregation of the PCG at Kyebi, Reverend Dr Seth Kissi, Akyem Abuakwa Presbytery Chairperson, said the Presbyterian Church believed in stewardship of the environment, hence the project.

He made reference to Genesis 2:15 "the Lord took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it," said and he continued that "we understand from this text that working and keeping the land has no room for careless exploitation of land resources but their sustainable use"

Rev. Kissi explained that the sustainable use of natural resources, among other things, demanded that "the tree we cut down for building, farming and other purposes are replaced" and in the light of that the tree planting project was an attempt by Osagyefo and the PCG, to help restore the large vegetation cover destroyed over the years.

The Presbytery Chairperson, indicated that the adage that "when the last tree dies, the last man dies" says it all and stressed the importance of trees in the life of society and development and disclosed that due to the indiscriminate cutting of trees, several schools in the area were affected during rainstorm and expressed the hope that the project would aggressively addressed that deficiency.

He said under the project, they intend to plant an average of 25 trees around each of the 259 Presbyterian schools, an average of 15 trees around each of the 91 chapels of the PCG and 15 trees around the Mission Houses in the area and thanked the Forestry Commission for supplying the needed seedlings for the project.

The Okyenhene, on his part, said the biblical saying that 'be fruitful and multiply' was not about childbearing alone, but multiplying the natural resources that God had put within our power to multiply such as trees to provide windbreaks during times of disasters and medicines for healing.

He said it was deeply regrettable that the Akyem area known as 'kwaebibrem' to wit 'dense forest' was now a shadow of itself because of degrading human activities such as illegal lumbering and mining of all kinds "whether legal or illegal".

The Okyenhene recalled that years ago, the Birim River was purer than the 'so called' purified water put in sachets and bottles and provided thousands of people clean natural water because of the forest and trees that surrounded it and appealed to all to support the project.

Under the project, the Okyenhene would tour the over 140 towns and villages under the Akyem Abuakwa Traditional Area and distribute the seedlings for the tree planting as well as campaign for good nutrition for children, beginning from September 9th, this year.