The Tree for Life (T4L) initiative introduced by the government this year has led to the restoration of 65,964 hectares of the country’s landscape, figures from the Forestry Commission have shown.
The policy, which was launched by President John Dramani Mahama on Friday, March 21, 2025, at Nkawie in the Ashanti Region, on the theme: ‘‘Restoring Degraded Landscapes Across the Country”, was part of the government’s overall green agenda meant to protect the environment.
Providing updates on the initiative last Monday, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Forestry Commission, Dr Hugh Brown, said cumulatively, 26.1 million tree seedlings had been planted nationwide under the T4L initiative through public and private interventions.
Breaking the figures down, he said the restored landscape under the T4L initiative included 17,133.6 hectares of forest plantations; enrichment planting of 1,830.9 hectares and distribution of over 1.5 million tree seedlings for planting on an estimated 47,000 hectares of farmland.
Aside from the restoration of the landscape, he said the T4L initiative had resulted in the creation of over 41,000 green jobs this year.He explained that the jobs were created through government-led initiatives such as the recruitment of 2,500 Youth Forest Champions (YFC); the engagement of 20,422 Modified Taungya System (MTS) farmers and 18,535 persons in tree seedling production.
Dr Brown added that as part of the public-private partnerships to sustain the gains, 400 private entities had been allocated degraded sites within forest reserves to undertake various forest restoration projects intended for timber production, carbon sequestration and enhancement of biodiversity.
“These private sector efforts have resulted in the creation of an estimated 17,300 jobs and the enhancement of the livelihoods of various communities across the country through the creation of indirect jobs, infrastructural improvement and ensuring food security,” he said.
For instance, he said Miro Forestry Ghana Limited, one of the private forest plantation development companies, which commenced commercial forest plantation development in Ghana in 2009, had so far established an estimated 14,000 hectares of forest plantations and also constructed a wood processing factory (ply mill) in Drobonso in the Ashanti Region.
Timber regulation
Touching on the timber industry, Dr Brown said 1.51 million cubic metres of natural forest timber was harvested as of the end of November this year, as against an annual target of 2 million cubic metres.
Additionally, he said 209,194m3 of plantation timber was harvested over the same period.
“As at the end of October, a total of 180,012 m³ of timber and timber products valued at €82.5 million had been exported. During the same period, a total of 519,887m3 of lumber valued at GH¢770 million and 108,937 m3 of plywood valued at GH¢640 million were traded on the domestic market,” he added.
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