International Day of Forests
Sunday 21 March is International Day of Forests. This year’s theme, chosen by the Collaborative Partnership on Forests, is ‘Forest restoration: a path to recovery and well-being’.
In 2012, the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed 21 March as the International Day of Forests (IDF), to celebrate and raise awareness of the importance of all different types of forests. Each year, on 21 March, people are encouraged to undertake activities involving forests and trees, such as tree planting campaigns.
Forest Walk – Lusaka
Why not join the Tree Club of Zambia this Sunday for their ‘Afternoon Tree Walk’. They are planning a gentle 1-2 hour walk through Forest 27 with local tree experts, so you can ask lots of questions and learn more about Lusaka’s forests. Find out more on their ‘Afternoon Tree Walk’ Facebook page.
Why protect our Forests?
Healthy forests mean healthy people – forests provide health benefits for everyone, including fresh air, nutritious foods, clean water and space for recreation. In developed countries, up to 25% of all medicinal drugs are plant-based, whilst in developing countries, their contribution is as high as 80%.
Forest food provides healthy diets – Indigenous communities typically consume more than 100 types of wild food, many harvested from their local forests. An African study found that the dietary diversity of children living close to forests is at least 25% higher than that of more urban based children. So the destruction of forests is unhealthy – nearly one in three outbreaks of emerging infectious disease are linked to changes in land-use, such as deforestation.
Restoring forests will improve our environment – our world is losing 10 million hectares of forest each year. Land degradation affects almost 2 billion hectares – that is an area larger than South America. Forest loss, and their degradation, emit large quantities of climate-warming gases, with at least 8% of forest plants and 5% of forest animals being at high risk of extinction. Restoring our forests, along with their sustainable management, will address the climate-change and biodiversity crises, whilst producing goods and services needed for sustainable development.
Sustainable forestry can create millions of green jobs – forests provide more than 86 million jobs and support the livelihoods of many more people. Wood, from managed forests, supports diverse industries, from paper to the construction of tall buildings. Investment in forest restoration will help our economies recover from the current pandemic by creating jobs.
Every tree counts
Small-scale planting and restoration projects have big impacts – City greening, for example, creates cleaner air along with more beautiful spaces, having huge benefits for the mental and physical health of urban dwellers. It is estimated that trees provide cities with benefits worth over half a billion US dollars every year, such as by reducing air pollution and cooling buildings.
Engaging and empowering people to sustainably use forests is a key step towards positive change – a healthy environment requires stakeholder engagement, especially at the local level so that communities can better govern and manage the land on which they depend. Community empowerment helps advance local solutions and promotes participation in ecosystem restoration. There is an opportunity to ‘rebuild’ forest landscapes that are equitable and productive, and that avert the risks to ecosystems and people posed by forest destruction.
We can recover from our planetary, health and economic crisis. – investing in ecosystem restoration will help to heal individuals, communities and their environment. The aim of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, which starts this year, is to prevent, halt and reverse the degradation of ecosystems worldwide. It offers the prospect of putting trees and forests back into degraded forest landscapes at a massive scale, increasing ecological resilience and productivity. Forest restoration is a key nature-based solution for achieving a better and healthier future for us and our children. So let’s restore our planet this decade.
Find out more
You can find out more about the importance of our forests and Forest restoration: a path to recovery and well-being on by visiting the UN’s website and don’t forget to check out the Tree Club of Zambia’s Facebook Page.