adminThe message was so clear and was deliberately spread throughout the country through all forms of media that everybody, including primary and secondary school children, was aware of it. Then everybody was conscious of the value of trees and vegetation in their lives and to the ecosystem.
The Government set the first weekend of December as National Tree Planting Day and environmentalists applauded the move. Even school children yearned for this day to plant trees and there was joy in watching them grow in the school plantations or orchards. But the planting of trees was not only confined to December and people would grow trees even throughout the year.
The first weekend of December was chosen because it is at the beginning of the rainy season and the wetness means trees would thrive even when they are not watered.
Fast-track to the year 2011. While the hype over environmental issues is there and has even reached higher proportions, people are no longer putting into practice what they preach.
There have been concerted efforts through various programmes by the Forestry Commission, the Environmental Management Agency and non-governmental organisations dealing with environmental issues to educate the populace on the need to preserve our environment.
But sadly if a survey were to be carried out today to establish the number of people who have planted trees over the past few years, very few will stand up and claim to have contributed meaningfully to this worthy environmental cause.
Yet on the other hand, they have played a role in the destruction of forests or use forest products in their day-to-day lives oblivious of the damage to the environment.
Witness the destruction of flora and fauna during the dry season, now known as the fire season.
Our courts and law enforcement agencies have not helped matters either and those caught on the wrong side of environmental laws are not slapped with deterrent sentences.
But the message is still the same: trees are life and without them, the earth will be doomed. So why is human kind not prioritising environmental issues?
The situation is getting desperate and there is a need to re-inculcate that message to our children so that they pass it on to their children and their children’s children and so on.
If urgent measures are not taken now, we run the risk of turning our country into a desert. Let us not forget that what is now the Sahara desert was once a thriving fertile land with trees, grasslands and all, but because of deforestation, it is now a vast expanse of wasteland.
In Zimbabwe, it is estimated that 300 000 hectares of forests are lost annually and this is a worrying phenomenon which we must all put our heads together to curb.
The deadly effects of adverse weather conditions brought about by climate change will continue to wreak havoc on earth because nothing meaningful has come out of the Durban climate change talks. This means countries like Zimbabwe will continue to experience droughts, floods and other adverse weather conditions.
While there is nothing much that humans can do to stop natural causes like droughts and floods, we can at least mitigate their impact and planting trees is one sure way of doing that.
It should be every Zimbabwean’s duty to plant a tree this summer. We need to enforce a zero tolerance to the cutting down of trees.
We are well aware of the energy challenges brought about by frequent power cuts, but we must embrace alternative sources of energy like solar power.
We therefore support the call by President Mugabe for a prolonged programme of tree-planting until the next National Tree Planting Day next year.
Online Reporter