Trees play a vital role for humanity. They are needed to enrich and anchor soil, to maximise water supplies, to beautify and humanise both rural and urban areas and to provide shade and shelter. REPORT BY TENDAI MAKARIPE
Trees are also crucial for biodiversity conservation. Products and services from trees include food, timber, fibre, medicines and energy.
Since elementary school, we have been told how trees absorb carbon dioxide and turn it into oxygen, something which is crucial for our very existence.
The natural carbon dioxide cycle keeps a balance in the amount of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere.
But our actions and behaviours have been causing changes which have upset the intended natural balance. The destruction of rainforests and cutting down of other forests also affects the balance, threatening our survival.
Fortunately, Africa has people who are striving to ensure that our natural resources especially trees, are restored.
One such person is Miss Tourism Harare 2009 winner and Miss Global Zimbabwe 2013 finalist, Samantha Dika who has embarked on various projects that have the ultimate goal of preserving our indigenous trees.
“Planting trees greens and beautifies the areas in which they are planted. It is important to look after our forest resources everywhere in the country so that we protect ourselves from the ravages of weather, whose negative effects are manifesting in the form of the climate change scourge we are witnessing these years,” said the model.
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Dika has worked with all the 32 council primary schools in Harare planting a tree at each school and preaching the gospel of reforestation to the young students. Her escapades have taken her to Hwahwa Juvenile Prison in Midlands province where she also planted trees and taught the prisoners how to be responsible members of the society who can jealously guard their environment.
With the help of the Environment ministry, Dika has turned herself into an environmental ambassador, disseminating the news of environmental friendliness to anyone who cares to listen.
Dika and President Robert Mugabe seem to be singing from the same hymn book as he is also a strong believer in reforestation and environmental friendliness.
In a speech read on his behalf by the Environment and Natural Resources Management minister, Francis Nhema at Nyamandlovu Secondary School in Matabeleland province recently, Mugabe urged Zimbabweans to reforest and take care of the remaining trees.
He said planting trees would see children embracing the culture of tree planting.
“I want to urge communities and their leadership, chiefs, headman, village heads, councillors and all political and civic leaders to make sure that their areas have been reforested and the trees looked after. Let us give our children this message of tree planting and conservation so that they embrace the culture as they grow,” said Mugabe.
He said most trees naturally propagate themselves in the wild through seed dispersal and various other natural propagation methods.
“It is our role as human beings in this natural process to positively intervene by conserving these naturally growing trees, protecting them from fire destruction and unsustainable utilisation,” he said.
Nhema encouraged everyone to adopt the “Every Zimbabwean a tree” strategy which is meant to increase the number of trees in the country.
Erosion control, maintenance of the water cycle, habitat for biodiversity, water purification, climate regulation, mitigation of extreme weather events and enrichment of the soil, all demonstrate the economic value to people of protecting forests and reducing or avoiding deforestation.
FORESTS HELP REDUCE GLOBAL WARMING
The Environmental Management Agency (EMA) says, on a global scale, trees in tropical forests absorb nearly one-fifth of the carbon dioxide released by burning fossil fuels.
The same forests remove around 4,8 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere each year, thereby playing a vital role in reducing global warming, it said.
“Forests also contribute about 1% of the world’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) which is about US$379 billion and in this way contribute towards sustainable livelihoods particularly to forest dependent people. Wood is the source of energy for over 2 billion people worldwide, and about 90% of the people in Zimbabwe,” said EMA.
