Save the forests, save the planet

The International Day of Forest fell on March 21. Forests are of vital importance to the wellbeing of all creatures, the natural world and especially humankind. They absorb most of the damaging CO2 (carbon dioxide) that causes climate change. Their protection and restoration should be of highest national priority of each nation to hold back global warming from rising above 1.5 degrees Celsius and avert the catastrophe that is to come.

Forests are vital for retaining and releasing water the whole year-round, preventing drought and providing clean water and protection from landslides and soil erosion in the typhoon season. In the Philippines and other nations that have suffered deforestation, there is severe low crop yield that causes food insecurity due to massive rains and typhoons because of soil erosion. In some provinces, 50 per cent of the rich topsoil has been washed away and worse is to come. There are no more forests to hold the water back. The Philippines, once self-sufficient in rice, now imports most of its rice.

Mining companies and loggers, allowed by officials, are the main causes behind the deforestation. In 1900, there was 70 per cent forest cover in the Philippines. By 1999, there was about three to five per cent remaining. Forty years of savage, uncontrolled logging caused this irreplaceable loss of primary rainforest. Denuded, bare, exposed hills and mountains is the tragic result, and it still goes on. Ninety-eight per cent of Philippine plywood that is exported  to Japan is worth US$86 million ($668 million). However, some of the wood is from sustainable plantations.

There has been what I call “foresticide” with the global deforestation rate at an estimated 10 million hectares per year. That is 429 million hectares since 1990. The cutting of millions of hectares of Brazilian Amazon rainforest and the killing of forest guards and indigenous people is growing. Researchers say that more than 230 million hectares of prime forest will have been destroyed by 2050.

In the Amazon, the forests are cut down to provide pasture for cattle and fields for palm oil and growing soya. The indigenous people are being wiped out by disease and violence by the cattle ranchers and soya planters. The proliferation of cattle in the world is now at 989 million, which is down from more than one billion in 2014. This is an environmental disaster as they produce huge amounts of methane, a global warming gas causing climate change that damages forests. 

In Europe, there is a battle to preserve the forests of Poland. The government is allowing the logging of the world heritage site of the famous primeval Bialowieza Forest that has stood for millions of years. In 2018, the European Court of Justice declared the deforestation illegal. But Poland is planning to continue soon despite the protests and legal challenges. Destroying the habitat of wildlife will destroy their chances for survival.

The fabled forests of Germany are under big threat from acid rain caused by polluting factories, coal plants and vehicles emissions. By the 1980s, 2.5 million hectares were damaged and hundreds of thousands of trees died. The acid rain killed the leaves and the roots. The forests are being protected with changes in law and change to renewable energy sources. 

In Uttar Pradesh, India, 800,000 volunteers planted 50 million trees in a single day. The record was broken the following year by the state of Madhya Pradesh, which saw 1.5 million volunteers planting 66 million tree saplings in just 12 hours. The efforts continue each year. This year, respecting all the social distancing measures, two million volunteers gathered at farmlands, government buildings, and riverbanks in Uttar Pradesh to plant 250 million saplings distributed by officials. Also, this year, trees are being tagged to keep records of their survival. The overall goal is to increase the forest cover to 235 million acres by 2030—a number India pledged to in Paris in 2016.

Ethiopian government’s Green Legacy Initiative placed innumerable volunteers—around 23 million of them—at 1,000 planting sites across the country. Together they allegedly managed to plant more than 350 million saplings in just 12 hours.

Faced with desertification and increasing wildfire threats, Turkey has initiated its own mega-planting project. Last year, the government declared that November 11 would become National Forestation Day. In the first year, volunteers planted 11 million trees in more than 2,000 locations across the country. The northern Anatolian city of Çorum broke the world record for the most trees planted at a single site in one hour—303,150 saplings. However, the survival rate is disputed and an estimated 40 per cent have perhaps survived.

There is yet hope for the future that forests can be replanted and, in the Philippines, we need more planting projects working directly with the people. The DENR projects have endured failures and, allegedly, some corrupt deals with contract growing.

The best practice we found is to give the saplings to the indigenous peoples to plant on their ancestral deforested lands. 

In our efforts at the Preda Foundation working with the Aeta indigenous people, they plant an average of 3,000 saplings every year for the past 15 years. A small but significant contribution, we can save the forests and restore them by trusting and working with the people.

Father Shay Cullen
www.preda.org