Ghana’s national reforestation effort is picking up speed. The country’s Tree for Life initiative planted more than 31 million trees across the country in 2025 C.E., and the government has now launched the 2026 C.E. edition with a fresh target of 30 million more seedlings — a sign that large-scale ecological restoration is becoming a durable part of national policy rather than a one-off campaign.
At a glance
- Tree for Life initiative: Ghana’s national reforestation program planted more than 31 million trees in 2025 C.E., drawing on government institutions, schools, traditional authorities, civil society organizations, and private sector partners.
- Degraded landscape restoration: Alongside the tree-planting figures, restoration activities covered more than 23,600 acres (roughly 58,370 acres) of degraded land in 2025 C.E., according to the Forestry Commission.
- Reforestation target: The 2026 C.E. campaign aims to plant 30 million seedlings nationwide and is paired with a national goal of restoring two million acres of degraded landscapes by 2030 C.E.
What the initiative is and where it came from
President John Dramani Mahama launched Tree for Life in 2025 C.E. at Nkawie in the Ashanti Region as a flagship national program to restore degraded lands, increase forest cover, and strengthen Ghana’s response to climate change. The 2026 C.E. edition was launched on June 5, 2026 C.E. — World Environment Day — at West Africa Senior High School in Accra, under the theme “Forests and Economies.”
Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah, Ghana’s Minister for Lands and Natural Resources and Acting Minister for Environment, Science and Technology, used the occasion to frame forests not just as an environmental asset but an economic one. He noted that forests support agriculture, create jobs, protect water resources, and contribute to climate resilience. “Climate change is no longer a future threat but a present reality requiring immediate and collective action,” he told the gathering.
Forests and the economy
Forestry Commission Chief Executive Hugh Brown offered some grounding numbers. About 20 percent of Ghana’s population depends directly or indirectly on forest resources, making tree cover a livelihood question as much as an ecological one.
This connection between forests and economies is increasingly recognized globally. Ghana’s effort sits within a broader wave of African reforestation commitments — including Ethiopia’s own large-scale tree-planting drives — that form part of climate progress being made across the continent. The United Nations Development Programme has pledged continued support for Ghana’s restoration programs, and the country’s two-million-hectare degraded-landscape restoration goal by 2030 C.E. is backed by international partners.
Ghana is also taking steps on other environmental fronts. The Environmental Protection Authority announced plans to ban Styrofoam and polystyrene takeaway packaging starting January 1, 2027 C.E., part of a wider push to reduce plastic pollution alongside the reforestation work.
Survival, not just planting
One of the most striking points from the 2026 C.E. launch was a deliberate shift in how the initiative measures itself. Minister Buah was direct: “The true measure of success is not the number of seedlings planted but the number of trees that survive and mature.”
This is a significant and honest framing. Large tree-planting campaigns around the world have sometimes reported impressive seedling numbers while glossing over survival rates — a gap that can make outcomes look far better than they are on the ground. Ghana’s public emphasis on nurturing planted trees, rather than only counting them at planting, signals a more rigorous approach to accountability.
Still, challenges are real. Ghana continues to face rising temperatures, erratic rainfall, flooding, droughts, coastal erosion, and declining forest cover. Illegal mining — locally known as galamsey — remains a persistent threat to forest and water resources. The EPA said it would intensify enforcement against illegal mining and pollution, but enforcement in forested and remote areas is difficult and has proven hard to sustain consistently over time.
A model worth watching
What makes Tree for Life notable is its breadth of participation. The 2025 C.E. effort brought together government agencies, schools, traditional authorities, civil society groups, development partners, and private companies. That breadth matters: reforestation efforts with community and traditional authority buy-in tend to have better long-term survival outcomes than top-down programs alone.
Ghana is one of many countries showing that national reforestation programs, when designed with community involvement and honest accountability, can move beyond symbolic gestures toward measurable ecological recovery. The numbers from 2025 C.E. offer a real milestone. Whether those trees are still standing in a decade is the test that will matter most.
Read more
For more on this story, see: Ghana Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources
For more from Good News for Humankind, see:
- Ethiopia’s record-breaking tree-planting milestone
- Global EV sales top 20 million in 2025
- The Good News for Humankind archive on Ghana
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