adminDurban, South Africa on Monday, would be the launch of a new campaign by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) that aims at planting a billion trees.
Dubbed the Plant for the Planet or the Billion Tree Campaign (BTC), this worldwide initiative requires many takers for it to succeed.
To get started, BTC has to be domesticated by governments whose responsibility would be to lead from the front while cascading the message downwards until it gets to the grassroots. Business, labour and the civil society will act as the catalyst.
Here in Zimbabwe, the Government already has a partner in Friends of the Environment (FOTE) and COP 17 can count on FOTE to deliver on one of its main highlights.
In 2010, FOTE saw the logic in joining Government in its efforts to reforest the country in its own small way. The initiative is bearing fruit, but what is quite clear is that the task at hand cannot be left to FOTE or the Government alone: It requires more people who are prepared to dirty their hands for the love of trees and re-greening our environment.
On November 27, 2010, to be precise, FOTE had their first walkathon, from Gweru to Harare in seven days. It was a gruelling journey for the love of trees.
And as COP17 opens on Monday, FOTE will be 24 hours on the road. This time, the walkathon will take us from Harare to Mutare, starting on Sunday – all for the love of trees.
In China, there is a proverb that says: “The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now”.
At FOTE we cannot agree more. By planting trees, we are not doing it for ourselves, but for future generations. The question pricking our conscience has always been: What is it that this current generation hopes to bequeath to the next generation? Certainly, it cannot be a desert!
For now, our target is to plant 500 million trees inside 15 years and we are convinced that this target is achievable.
It is therefore timely that while COP 17 will be highlighting the vital importance of voluntary collective action in the fight against climate change on international stage, FOTE will be on the road to raise awareness on this important subject to our local community. It is a cause underpinning our survival.
Without trees, there is no life: Trees are important, valuable and necessary to our very existence. It’s not too hard to believe that, without trees we humans would not exist on this beautiful planet.
Still, trees are essential to life as we know it and are the ground troops on an environmental frontline. Our existing forest and the trees we plant work in tandem to make a better world.
Here are the 10 reasons why trees are important:
Trees produce oxygen
Let’s face it; we could not exist as we do if there were no trees. A mature leafy tree produces as much oxygen in a season as 10 people inhale in a year. What many people don’t realise is that, the forest also acts as a giant filter that cleans the air we breathe.
Trees clean the soil
The term phytoremediation is a fancy word for the absorption of dangerous chemicals and other pollutants that have entered the soil. Trees can either store harmful pollutants or actually change the pollutant into less harmful forms. Trees filter sewage and farm chemicals, reduce the effects of animal wastes, clean roadside spills and clean runoff water getting into streams.
Trees control noise pollution
Trees muffle urban noise almost as effectively as stone walls. Trees, planted at strategic points in a neighbourhood or around your house, can abate major noises from freeways and airports.
Trees slow storm water runoff
Flash flooding can be dramatically reduced by a forest or by planting trees. One Colorado blue spruce, either planted or growing wild, can intercept more than 1 000 gallons of water annually when fully grown. Underground water-holding aquifers are recharged with this slowing down of water runoff.
Trees are carbon sinks
To produce its food, a tree absorbs and locks away carbon dioxide in the wood, roots and leaves. Carbon dioxide is a global warming suspect. A forest is a carbon storage area or a “sink” that can lock up as much carbon as it produces. This locking-up process “stores” carbon as wood and not as an available “greenhouse” gas.
Trees clean the air
Trees help cleanse the air by intercepting airborne particles, reducing heat, and absorbing such pollutants as carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen dioxide. Trees remove this air pollution by lowering air temperature, through respiration, and by retaining particulates.
Trees shade and cool
Shade resulting in cooling is what a tree is best known for. Shade from trees reduces the need for air conditioning in summer. In winter, trees break the force of winter winds, lowering heating costs. Studies have shown that parts of cities without cooling shade from trees can literally be “heat islands” with temperatures as much as 12 degrees Fahrenheit higher than surrounding areas.
Trees act as windbreaks
During windy and cold seasons, trees located on the windward side act as windbreaks. A windbreak can lower home heating bills up to 30 percent and have a significant effect on reducing snow drifts. A reduction in wind can also reduce the drying effect on soil and vegetation behind the windbreak and help keep precious topsoil in place.
Trees fight soil erosion
Erosion control has always started with tree and grass planting projects. Tree roots bind the soil and their leaves break the force of wind and rain on soil. Trees fight soil erosion, conserve rainwater and reduce water runoff and sediment deposit after storms.
Trees increase property values
Real estate values increase when trees beautify a property or neighbourhood. Trees can increase the property value of your home by 15 percent or more.
About FOTE
FOTE comprise like-minded organisations – from the corporate world, Government, non-governmental organisations and individuals – that came together in 2010 to support the idea of reforestation through a non-profit-making Trust Fund. The organisation works with the Forestry Commission of Zimbabwe, along with other environmental organisations, with the support of the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources Management.
NB: In our next installment, we shall talk about our nursery adoption project.
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