NECO011
Economics Youth Afforestation
The Government has engaged over 60,000 youth in the Youth in Afforestation Programme.
Mr Kwaku Asomah-Cheremeh, Lands and Natural Resources Minister, said the agreement with the Youth Employment Agency was initially to recruit 15,000 youth but the number has far been exceeded as a result of overwhelming interest expressed by the teeming youth in the programme.
“Currently, over 60,000 beneficiaries have been engaged under the programme of which 30 per cent of the total number are women,” Asomah-Cheremeh said on Tuesday in his address during his Ministry’s turn at the meet the press series.
“Indeed, this is part of government’s job creation agenda in the forestry sub-sector to boost plantation activities in the country. This forms part of the total job created this year under the Ghana Forest Plantation Strategy.”
He said the Government’s determination to save the environment and in line with the Forest Plantations Strategy, the Forestry Commission and the Youth Employment Agency signed a Service Agreement in 2017 for the joint implementation of a two-Year Forest Plantation Programme under the Youth in Agriculture and Afforestation Model.
It would be recalled that the programme was launched in Kumasi on 13th August by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo. Mr Asomah-Cheremeh said under the Service Agreement, the engaged beneficiaries are expected to establish forest plantations, undertake enrichment planting of degraded forest reserves, plant trees on farms, maintain and rehabilitate forest plantations.
He gave an overview on the current status of implementation of programmes and projects being pursued by his Ministry within the National Medium-Term Development Policy Framework (20182021) and other National and International Strategic Plans such as the Sector Medium Term Plans (2018-2021), the Sustainable Development Goals (2015-2030) and the African Union Agenda (2063).
Mr Asomah-Cheremeh said the forestry subsector of the Ministry had been very active in implementing various policies, programmes and projects in order to sustain Ghana’s forests and wildlife estates and resources.
He said the objectives of these activities are to ensure the sustainable management, development and protection of forest and wildlife resources. The Minister said as part of efforts to restore the nation’s degraded landscapes into a productive ones the Ministry continues to implement strategies and activities under the National Forest Plantation Development Programme.
He said the goal of the programme was to develop a sustainable resource base that would satisfy the future demand for industrial timber and enhance environmental quality, thereby relieving pressure on the natural forest and increase forest cover.
He said this was in line with the implementation of the 25-Year Ghana Forest Plantation Strategy (2016-2040), which was a blueprint for landscape restoration in Ghana. “It should be noted that between 2002 and 2017, an aggregate area of over 200,000ha of degraded forest reserves has been established throughout the country under various components of the plantation development programme,” he said.
“As of 2017, private developers have planted a cumulative area of over 40,000ha and in the process, an amount of about GHS 420,000 was disbursed as ground rent to the respective landowners of the planted forest reserves through the Office of the Administrator of Stool Lands.”
Mr Asomah-Cheremeh said as spelt out in the National Plantation Strategy, a target of 25,000 hectares of degraded landscapes was expected to be planted this year under government and private sector initiatives across the country. He said as at October this year, an area of almost 14,600 hectares have been planted; declaring that this has so far generated employment for over 75,500 people through the government’s Modified Taungya System (MTS), Direct Planting, YEA and the private sector plantings.