Barbados has been praised for its million-tree national tree-planting project as Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA) Akwasi Agyeman declared that he is so impressed with the project, which is designed to combat climate change, that he is hoping to replicate it in Ghana.
The We Plantin’ More than a Million tree planting programme is part of the We Gatherin’ 2020 initiative, which bears close parallels to a year-long initiative by the West African nation whose own descendants dominate the Barbadian population.
Agyeman, who is leading a delegation from the GTA, spoke to the media during a tree planting exercise at the National Botanical Garden today.
The delegation is currently on a cultural exchange with the Barbados Tourism Marketing Inc. (BTMI), which will allow the Ghanaian team to share expertise on their Year of Return initiative last year, in which Ghana marked the 400th anniversary of the start of the Transatlantic Slave Trade.
Petra Roach, Head of Global Markets, BTMI,
Director of Tourism Development in the Ministry of Tourism Dr Kerry Hall, and Akwasi Agyeman CEO of the Ghana Tourism Authority.
The Year of Return 2019 was a homecoming, which encouraged African descendants around the world to visit Ghana or invest in the country.
Agyeman recalled that 50 trees were planted on a cocoa eco-farm as part of the Miss Heritage Global pageant, a Year of the Return activity.
He said: “It was not the scale of what you are going to do here with the We Gatherin’.
“We had several community initiatives and services that were built into the Year of Return, but this one is quite unique.
“The tree planting is a very strong legacy that in years to come when we remember the We Gatherin’ 2020, we can always look back and say this tree was planted during that time.
“It is quite good and also an environmentally positive thing to do. It is a lesson we are taking back, as we carry on with Beyond the Return, we also want to incorporate it in our planning.
“Coming here, seeing what you are doing as a small country, but with big dreams and big ideas, is something we are taking back and we believe we can open the channel of communication between the people of Ghana and the Bajan people.”
Head of Global Markets of the BTMI Petra Roach said Barbados was looking to established closer and direct links from Accra to Bridgetown.
She said the move was key to diversifying the island’s tourist markets by moving away from depending solely on the traditional source markets of the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada.
She said it was the first time that the BTMI was working with another tourist office to stimulate travel from both areas.
Roach said: “We had a long shared history, one which was thrust upon us.
“We are really at a moment in time in history which we can help define, which we can create the narrative for.
“We are helping each other with best practices about the development.”
Agyeman, along with the GTA’s Senior Project Officer Ernest Odame, Manager of Product Development and Investment Benjamin Anane Nsiah and Manager of the Year of Return, Annabelle Renee McKenzie, planted gooseberry, mango, tamarind and Bajan cherry trees at the National Botanical Garden at Codrington.
