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| | University Of Ghana Marks World Environment Day |    | | | Over 200 staff of the University of Ghana and pupils from the Basic Schools have participated in a tree-planting exercise organised by the University to commemorate this year’s World Environment Day, a global event.
Over 700 species of the mahogany tree (khaya senegalensis) were planted along sections of the borders of the University land were planted along the boundaries of the University, beginning from the western gate, close to GIMPA and to University’s Botanical Gardens. Besides the environmental benefits associated with trees, such as acting as windbreaks and providing shade, it has the additional benefit of securing the University lands from encroachment.
After the tree-planting exercise, school children who participated in the event were educated on the importance of trees and the benefits they offer to the environment. They were also given practical education in environmental cleanliness. As a demonstration of what they had learnt, the school children cleared refuse generated from the event, to buttress the popular axiom that “a clean environment make a healthy people”.
World Environment Day (WED) is hosted every year by a different city in the world and commemorated with an international exposition through the week of June 5. It was instituted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1972 as an outcome of the Stockholm Conference on the issue of Human Environment to stimulate awareness about the environment and enhance political attention and action. The agenda is to give a human face to environmental issues, empower people to become active agents of sustainable and equitable development; promote an understanding that communities are pivotal to changing attitudes towards environmental issues; and advocate partnership which will ensure all nations and peoples enjoy a safer and more prosperous future.
The 2010 WED was hosted by Rwanda, on the theme, “Many Species, One Planet, One Future”, to celebrate the diversity of life on earth as part of the 2010 International Year of Biodiversity. In Ghana, the day was celebrated on 11th June at Osino in the Eastern Region.
Following the successful celebration of the WED at the University of Ghana, which saw the participation of other guests, media personnel and the University’s security personnel it is expected that the Environmental Protection Agency will partner the University of Ghana for three subsequent years’ celebrations to take place at the University. This year’s exercise was organised in collaboration with the Accra District Office of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under the auspices of the Ministry of Environment, Science and Technology.
With the exercise over, it is expected that the Grounds and Environmental Health Unit of the University will endeavour to maintain the trees so that the programme can be sustained. | | | | Date Published: 29/07/2010 | | | |   |
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