According to Ghana News Agency:BIDS to plant and nurture. Speaking at the launch, Professor Emmanuel K. Derbile, the Vice-Chancellor of SDD-UBIDS, announced that about 5,000 seedlings would be planted during the first phase of the exercise. The remaining trees would be planted after the launch of a special initiative by the GSA at Sankana in July.

Prof Derbile expressed the hope that the intervention would also help create a forest belt around the university, safeguarding the land from possible encroachment. ‘Our land is on both sides of the highway, but we do not have the resources to wall the entire campus, however, we need to secure the land for the growth and development of the university. So, we are planting trees in the buffer zone and also along the boundaries of the university land, and by so doing, we hope to be able to create a forest belt around the university’, Prof. Derbile indicated.

In addition to securing the land, the project is expected to bring long-term economic benefits to surrounding communities, especially through the cultivation of economic trees such as shea and dawadawa. To ensure its success, the university had engaged committed women from surrounding communities and student volunteers to support the planting exercise.

The Vice-Chancellor said that the university was not only focused on planting the trees but also prioritizing measures to ensure their survival. ‘Let me say that we are not just planting trees, we will move beyond this to ensure that we have a special programme to take care of these trees, because that is where we often have the challenge’, Prof. Derbile stated.

Talking about climate change, he emphasised the need for collective efforts of all well-meaning people in the climate change response. He said tree planting, for instance, would help in mitigating climate change by slowing down the rate of global warming and its multiplier effects. He also reiterated the need to instill good environmental values into children to enable them to grow with values that would help protect the environment.

Some community volunteers, who spoke to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) at the project launch, expressed their readiness and commitment to supporting the initiative to ensure its success.