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Three farming communities in the Banda District in the Bono Region have joined the Bui Power Authority (BPA) to plant more than 20,000 tree seedlings of different species to reforest the degraded Bui landscape.
The trees were planted at the Bui Generating Station (BGS) enclave to safeguard energy sustainability through the water–energy–forest nexus and protect the Black Volta Basin.
The communities hosting the BPA are Bui, Battor and Dokokyina.
Initiated by BPA under the Tree for Life (T4L) initiative, they planted forest tree seedlings such as teak, mahogany, ceiba, oframo, gmelina, dawadawa and mentalis.
At the tree planting exercise, the Board Chairman of the BPA, Kwadwo Nyamekye-Marfo, said the Authority had also instituted some environmental initiatives to restore the environment in the area.
He said flagship programmes such as the Forest Resource Enhancement Programme (FREP) and the Zero-Bushfire Campaign illustrated that BPA were not only fulfilling BPA’s energy mandate, but "it is also emerging as a leader in sustainable development and ecological restoration."
Mr Nyamekye-Marfo explained that environmental stewardship was not only a slogan for the BPA, "It is a national and moral obligation."
He thanked the institutions and communities, including the BPA Resettlement D/A School and the chiefs, for partnering with BPA to plant the trees.
The acting Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the BPA, Kow Eduakwa Sam, said the Authority was committed to generating energy from clean and sustainable sources.
He said the energy portfolio, which included a 404 megawatt (MW) Hydroelectric Plant, a 50MW Solar PV Plant, a 5MW Floating Solar Plant and close to 200MW of Solar PV projects currently under construction, reflected their commitment to safeguard the environment.
He said BPA took pride in the fact that its environmental stewardship complements its energy mission "because it’s about climate action, water conservation and food security."
Mr Eduakwa said that as leaders in renewable energy, they remained committed to working with stakeholders to ensure that sustainability becomes not just a policy, but a daily practice.
He reaffirmed BPA's unwavering support for the T4L initiative.
The Director of Occupational Health, Safety, Security and Environment (HSE), Chrisentus B. Kuunifaa, said the exercise had shown BPA's commitment to rebuild, reforest and renew the environment in the face of escalating ecological threats, from illegal mining and bushfires to climate change and biodiversity loss.
For his part, the Deputy Regional Manager of the Forestry Commission, Emmanuel Antwi, commended BPA for the significant contribution towards the sustenance of the environment.
He urged the public to make conscious efforts to plant trees and nurture them to grow in order to help reduce the carbon footprint, contribute to food security and help in climate regulation.
