NYAMOGA JOSEPH

(SOKOINE UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE)

The blog addresses the question 3; What actions should be taken so that our goal of building resilient forests can succeed?

A resilient forest

A resilient forest is one that has the ability to withstand and recover from disturbances, like natural disasters, climate change, diseases, and human activities, while maintaining its essential functions and characteristics. One of the reasons for the failure of resilient forests is that, Many children, youth, and elderly individuals don’t seem to care about forests. If they’re not involved in causing harm, they’re often not part of the solution either; many simply stay neutral.

Action towards resilient forest

In order to change this trend, one of the actions is to insert a sense of loving forest and caring for the forest into the upcoming generations of children.

We should encourage our children to inherit the practice of planting trees. One way to do this is by implementing a creative incentive: for every child born, a tree is planted. As the child grows, so does the tree, fostering a personal connection to environmental conservation. This initiative not only helps preserve and strengthen our forests but also addresses the pressing issue of climate change. While we may struggle to maintain the current climate in the coming years, we cannot turn back time to restore the world to its former beauty. However, programs like this can significantly contribute to climate change mitigation efforts.

Caring for trees that were planted on the date of  birth can be a stronger motivator for children to care for forests, and this is possible if only we believe that we can do it.

Our children’s dreams for their future lives depend heavily on the environment or forests that will exist at that time, because without forests, the impacts of climate change will be so severe that children may struggle to achieve their goals.

Credits: depositphotos (https://depositphotos.com/vector/african-american-farmer-girl-planting-tree-sprout-soil-hole-vector-268430734.html)

The forests we currently enjoy were once envisioned as ‘forests for the future’ in past years. The future always will come, and if it doesn’t find us, it will find our children instead.  Encouraging our children to love forests will plant seeds for their dreams, especially when we are unavailable.