The University for Development Studies (UDS) has planted over 1,000 shea and mahogany trees as part of activities to mark this year's World Environment Day. The tree planting exercise was carried out by students and staff of the Department of Environment and Sustainability Sciences under the Faculty of Natural Resources and Environment of the UDS. Seedlings of the trees, nurtured by the Department, were planted in the Tolon Senior High School and selected communities in the Tolon District of the Northern Region. As part of the World Environment Day commemoration, the students held a procession through the streets of UDS with placards, which had inscriptions of awareness creation on safeguarding the environment. Some of the placards read 'a green plant means a green future', 'be the change, embrace sustainability', 'our survival depends on the environment' and 'leave a legacy, plant a tree', among others. World Environment Day is celebrated on June 5, every year to inspire consciousness and action for the protection of the environment. This year's commemoration was on the theme: 'Our Land, Our Future'. UDS had the commemoration in partnership with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), A ROCHA Ghana, Water Sanitation and Hygiene Club and the Ecotourism and Environmental Management Students Association. Dr Dzigbordi Adzo Doke, Head of Department, Environment and Sustainability Sciences, UDS, speaking during the tree planting exercise, said the Department considered the day an opportunity to join the United Nations to draw attention to key environmental problems. She said the exercise sought to draw attention to restoring, improving soil fertility and resilience, adding that it was opportune time to re-emphasise the importance of collaboration in protecting the environment. She said, 'Students are very key in this exercise because as we sensitise them, they grow with ideas of how to plant and nurture trees for survival.' Dr Doke mentioned that the tree planting exercise focused on native trees given th eir environmental and climate resilience characteristics, adding they were culturally accepted by the community. Mr Karim Jato Saibu, Programme Officer at EPA, said planting trees occasionally could help to restore degraded lands underscoring the essence of the UDS' initiative. He noted that planting trees saved the vegetation and soil potency and could contribute to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) one and two. He said, 'It is an important event and EPA being the sole government agency enshrined in the constitution to protect the environment, has decided to collaborate with the UDS to educate communities on the need to protect our environment.' He urged members of the public to stop cutting down trees, bush burning and illegal logging, noting that those activities increased temperatures and affected vegetation. Tolon-Naa Sulemana Abubakar, Chief of Tolon, commended the efforts of UDS in promoting activities that sustained the environment. He said every citizen had a role to play in en vironmental issues, adding initiatives geared at shielding natural resources should not be left to only institutions in the field of sustainability. He called on the government to support the UDS agenda targeted at environmental sustainability to enable it extend projects to larger areas of the region. Source: Ghana News Agency