Mothercare International School, in collaboration with Makers and Partners (MAP), an accountancy firm, have joined the global community to commemorate the Green Ghana and World Environment Day by planting 150 trees in Accra.
The exercise, which took place at the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) Critical Care and Emergency Hospital, aimed at creating awareness about planting to enhance efforts to mitigate climate change impact.
Environmental destruction continues to be a major challenge for many countries, leading to worsening climate impacts, which in the long run threatens the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals.
Mr Asirifi Boakye, the Headmaster of Mothercare International School, underscored the need to encourage children to cultivate the habit of tree planting at home and in the communities to facilitate climate action and ease ozone layer depletion.
‘In the curriculum, we have methods of sustaining the environment, so what is being taught in the classroom we expect them to have a practice and i
mplement this in their homes and communities, and also how to sustain the trees, which are being planted’.
Mr Boakye commended the Okyehene, Osagyefo Amoatia Ofori Panin, and other chiefs for their role in the fight against the degradation of the environment, adding: ‘As a school, we are here to honour the call to plant trees’.
Mr Wildred Neneh Addico, Partner at MAP, touched on the importance of sustaining the environment, emphasising that, as a business one of its service-line includes Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG).
He reiterated the Firm’s commitment in ensuring that they regularly monitored and nurtured the trees to grow to help protect the environment.
Mr Addico advised builders and developers not to clear trees on their lands but rather work around them; saying, they serve an important part in the ecological system by taking away carbon dioxide.
He said the talk about climate change and global warming had to do with the omission of carbon dioxide into the environment.
‘That’s why we a
re seeing sea levels rising, flooding and heat waves; the solution to be able to mitigate some of these things is planting of trees and will urge Ghanaians to do well in planting trees and also protect the trees by not cutting them down’.
Dr Lukman Ahmed Qinan, a Physician Specialist at the GAF Critical Care and Emergency Hospital, highlighted the consequences of global warming and said tree planting was one of the ways to reduce its effects.
He said there were several effects of global warming, particularly on health, and a lot of diseases including heat stroke could spring up because of increasing temperatures, therefore planting more trees would go a long way to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
Source: Ghana News Agency