CROSS ROADS : Planting more trees for betterment of Tanzania

One of the most notable African women is the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, then Prof Wangari Maathai. She got the coveted prize, thanks to organising women at the grassroots to plant trees so as to counter deforestation.

Her campaign in Kenya, which later spread to other countries, encouraged women to think ecologically and plant trees in their neighbourhoods. According to the Nobel Committee, Prof Maathai’s tree-planting mission had a broad perspective that went a long way to increase democratic space, women’s rights, and international solidarity. I have thought of this noble daughter of Africa, after I came across a study that had been in great public limelight across the world in the last few days.

The study report in the peer-reviewed proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (America), notes that improved “land use could reduce carbon dioxide 37 per cent.” This would be adequate to keen global warming “below two degrees Celsius by 2030, as called for by the 2015 Paris Agreement.”

What would this entail? “Planting more trees, farming more sustainably and conserving wetlands” in the long-run would “significantly slash the amount of carbon emissions that humanity spews into the atmosphere through fossil fuel use.”

The beauty of the thought is that we opt for natural climate solutions. Of course, for ages we have known that we have to check for solutions that will reduce deforestation. We have known planting trees are a solution. But the study, coming in the wake of the head of state of the most powerful nation on earth, being a climate change denier, makes a lot of sense.

In the local setting Prof Wangari proved that women by planting trees, it went a long way, to make farming sustainable, assured them of food security, increased their incomes and helped to assert their rights.

Since independence, in Tanzania there have been many tree planting campaigns, but because of increased population, deforestation has been a way of life. We have seen even some protected areas being occupied, trees being felled and farming practiced illegally.

As much as today, as a nation we enjoy, massive forest coverage compared to many other nations, we should be vigilant. Villages, which had streams and small rivers, their sources of water have now dried up as a result of deforestation.

It is important to support the government, the private sector and civil society in planting trees. In March, this year, a campaign was initiated by a civil society in Dar es Salaam City to mobilise the youth to plant 50 million trees by 2020.

It is a paradox that we cut trees to cultivate or put up buildings and end up not having adequate rainfall and missing the food we were chasing! So, deforestation may seem as a way to development, but it’s not always the case. Sometime it leads to food insecurity and more poverty.

According to FAO, “Rural development is an essential pathway to reduce the number of hungry and those, who are forced to migrate.” Could planting more trees bring about rural development? In a way, it is possible! Recently, we celebrated Nyerere Day.

One of the less known aspects of Mwalimu Nyerere was that he spent most of his holidays at Butiama and he would work on his farm. Sometimes taking care of cattle or even planting trees.

Many educated Africans don’t like to touch the soil (to farm), but for him even after presidency, it was a way of life. No wonder he cared a lot about farmers. Back to our subject, we can emulate Mwalimu Nyerere to plant trees and benefit from them.

The author is an assistant lecturer, Dar es Salaam University College of Education (DUCE)