The Vice President of the Ghana Institute of Foresters (GIF) Ashanti Chapter has charged students preparing to enter secondary and tertiary institutions to consider courses that lead to careers in forestry and natural resources management.
Dr Joana Akua Serwaa Ameyaw who is also a Senior Lecturer at the Faculty of Renewable Natural Resources at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) said the national interest and passion to protect and safeguard the country’s forests and natural resources would be high if more people developed career interests in the sector.
She stressed that the duty call to safeguard the nation’s natural environment especially the forest cover is very challenging which requires that more people studied and took careers in the field.
She pointed that the natural resources management discipline offers several career choices which come with many benefits.
Dr Serwaa Ameyaw made the craving call when regional executives of the Ashanti regional chapter of the institute joined management and staff of the Timber Industry Development Division (TIDD) and the Afigya Kwabre North District Education Directorate to choose Nkwanta Esaase Methodist Primary School as site for this year Green Ghana exercise.
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The Senior Lecturer encouraged pupils of the school to develop the habits of planting and nurturing trees to support lives in their immediate surrounding such as schools and homes.
Mr Hayford Eshun, Techincal Adviser- GIF and Operations Manager of the Timber Industry Development Division of the Forestry Commission said tree planting awareness and education should not be limited to Green Ghana day.
He argued that trees can survive without humans but the later always need trees for their very survival and therefore called on the public to pay much attention to subject of tree planting.
Mr Eshun said his team and members of the GIF considered many factors before choosing the school as site for this year’s tree planting exercise.
He disclosed the event planners considered the degraded nature of the school’s compound and its impact on teaching, learning and general welfare of the pupils.
He said the teams then related the theme for the year Green Ghana: Our Forest Our Health, which points to the health benefits of trees on human lives and the effects of the absence of same on the school’s compound.
Mr Hayford Eshun indicated that beside these and other important reasons, TIDD and GIF with their professional and technical expertise in forest management considered the involvement of the young in the Green Ghana program as key to its sustainability.
He observed that for individual to grow and understand the importance of planting trees and nurturing them to grow and blossom, they must be involved in process while still young.
He encouraged each pupil in the school to plant a tree and nurture it.
The TIDD manager also used the occasion to advice members of the general public to make sure they have the right permits before harvesting any tree for any purpose and also to make judicious use of trees and tree products.
