The urgency to protect and conserve existing forests and restore degraded and deforested lands is now felt by many in Africa and across the globe.

It is for this reason that a forest restoration program under way near Kumasi, Ghana's second largest commercial city, some 270 km north of the capital, assumes crucial importance to provide vital environmental services.

During the COP 21 in Paris, France, an ambitious initiative christened the African Forest Landscape Restoration Initiative was launched to restore 100 m hectares of forests across Africa by 2030.

This initiative builds on the new Sustainable Development Agenda, particularly SDG 15, and supports the New York Declaration on Forests, which aims to end natural forest loss globally by 2030, and to restore 350 m hectares of the world's deforested and degraded lands over the period.

In Ghana each day never passes without more forests being cleared, driven by multiple activities, from agriculture, infrastructure development to the growing demand for wood and forest products, often made worse by illegal logging.

Source: Xinhua