SIERRA LEONE TREE PLANTING CAMPAIGN LAUNCHED
A surprise and welcome move yesterday saw President Bio announce a new national tree planting campaign to run thru 'til September end. We agree that “having just one tree-planting day in the year is too little to be impactful” and the campaign starts to make good on environmental pledges and will seek to increase community involvement in forest management and raise awareness about the negative effects of deforestation.
The Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Food Security, Joseph Ndanema, urges citizens and our fine small-holder farmers to plant trees that will both improve nutrition or generate income, trees like cashew nut, cocoa, fruit or medicine trees.
We welcome the announcement of the campaign but call on the Government to go further and:
make this a year-round tree-planting campaign for each and every year of this administration with a programmed approach to reach every corner of Sierra Leone
create jobs by encouraging nursery production of saplings to support the campaign
provide Arboriculture training for farmers
engage local community based organizations – with the expertise and track record to help deliver the campaign
Seek funding from carbon offsetting schemes to fund the campaign, training and nursery production
Designate more ancient forests to protect and enhance our natural capital and bio-diversity
Trees prevent soil erosion and absorb CO2 - one of the main causes of climate change - this matters because Sierra Leone is the third most vulnerable country in the world to climate change so anything that reduces co2 benefits us.
