29 August
THE Global New Light of Myanmar of 6 Au-gust 2019 conveyed a news item with the title of ‘‘Indonesian man walk-ing in reverse to save forests’’. According to the news, an Indo-nesian man is walking 700 kilo-metres (43 miles) from his home on a volcano in East Java to Jakarta in the hope of drawing attention to the archipelago’s quickly shrinking forests—and he is doing it backwards.
The man, called Medi Bas-toni walks 20 to 30 kilometres backwards every day under the scorching sun, with a rear-veiw mirror attached to his backpack to avoid bumping into objects. Walking backwards is meant as a signal to Indonesians to know that Indo¬nesia is suffer-ing from one of the high rates of deforestation in the world.
We can see so many kinds of demonstrators who try to draw attention of the people to express their feeling. However, this is an uncommon demon-stration that will call people’s attention to growing trees in his country.
With much interest, I have also read ‘A Geographer’s Perspective on the Issues of Climate Change and Global Warming’ that appeared in the GNLM (14-8-2019). In his arti-cle, the author said ‘‘...These gases (greenhouse gases) are released through industrial pro-duction, burning of fossil fuels (i.e. cars), and deforestation. Obviously, if we want to lower our greenhouse gas emissions, we need to find new sources of energy and replant our forests.’’
This is a timely warning that makes a clarion call to reforestation. Deforestation, indeed, is posing a serious threat to almost every nation in the world. Because of lack of trees, deforestation is giv-ing rise concern today. Some experts have remarked that deforestation, degradation of soil and desertifieation have created a new class of displaced people. Deforestation of upland watersheds is the main factor behind the growing severity of floods. Besides, it is one of the causes of global warming that is endangering the whole web of life on Earth.
News items and reports we have read almost every day show that more than 100 countries, covering millions of hectares, are seriously affect-ed by deforestation. Desertifi-cation which is like a disease of the Earth stemming from deforestation seriously affects the vegetative cover of crop-lands, pastures and woodlands. No one can deny that it also has negative impact on biolog-ical diversity, soil fertility, the hydrological cycle, crop yields and livestock production. That is why, leaders of the world na-tions are now calling for fight-ing ‘illegal deforestation’ and ‘replanting the forests’.
To be frank, during the last three decades in Myanmar, ille-gal logging and official extrac-tion of timber have severely depleted forests. According to statistics, the country lost 0.55 per cent of its forest cov-er between 1990 and 2000, and 1.73 per cent between 2010 and 2015. Due to deforestation, we come to know that we have lost about 546,000 hectares every year. This is not a good result for the future of Myanmar.
In the light of the present situation, we need to educate our younger generations to become tree lovers while the government is making efforts to replant forests. Example will be given. ‘People will be people’ by Cartoon Maung Shwe Win, that appeared in the Sunday Comics of GNLM, 18 August 2019 will surely enable the children to know the importance and value of trees. Anyhow, it reminded me of our childhood days.
During our younger days, we were taught the lessons on importance of trees in our classrooms and our teachers led us to grow vegetables and fruit trees in the school pre-cincts. Being the month of July was Arbour Month, whenever July came, we grew trees and landscaping plants in the school compounds and environs to create a healthy atmosphere. Today, some people may have forgotten the Arbour Month.
Trees, actually, have been on Earth millions of years be-fore man. Since then, they have been serving specific purposes. In every land and all ages, trees have had a profound influence on the progress and welfare of mankind. Without trees, the his-tory of most countries would have been decided Man is almost entirely de-pendent upon trees for shelter, sustenance and other essentials of life. Besides, they preserve the earth’s atmosphere, regu-late the flow of streams, and moderate winds and temperly different.
Man is almost entirely de-pendent upon trees for shelter, sustenance and other essentials of life. Besides, they preserve the earth’s atmosphere, regu-late the flow of streams, and moderate winds and temperatures. In addition to pleasing eyes, they are also ecologically necessary. In this way, trees are an essential component of nature.
Due to the burgeoning pop-ulation of the world and rapidly increasing tempo of industrial development, the demand for more land has become inevi-table and man has to cut trees to meet his basic needs. If tree cutting is excessive, forests shrink, and their capacity to satisfy human needs dimin-ishes. If forests shrink, there may occur an ecological upset with subsequent loss of other species in the botanical as well as zoological worlds. After all, ecological upset may lead to desertification desertification in dry-land areas can eventually turn drylands into unproductive desert like areas.
Regarding trees, as we have been taught these factors since our Childhood, we have become tree lovers.
Today, the rainy season tree planting events, or ceremonies for greening the land are held the length and breadth of the nation. It is heartening to see the leaders of the government who take part in the ceremo-nies to collectively plant trees. Local organizations together with the public are actively par-ticipating in such activities as planting trees for region wise greening and conservation of forests and bio-diversity as well as protecting endangered wild-life and rare trees are beneficial to our future Earth.
We plant trees because we have joy and satisfaction which cannot be explained to the uninitiated. Planting a seed or sapling and watching it grow makes us enjoy happiness. This happiness makes us young at heart.
Almost anything planted in the ground could grow in the tree planting season of the year. The soil is wet and fertile enough to receive new plants and trees that would be left posterity to care and protect. Man who loves nature enjoys seeing green leaves sprout, flowers bloom, and fruits and vegetables appear. The plants and trees we grow today will certainly make the future world ever green and pleasant.
Our forefathers grew trees for us. We are to do so for our posterity. This unending pro-cess should not be interrupted. Greening has more to it than planting trees, be they Arbore-al, fruit bearing or flowering. Within or out of the national Arbour Month we must grow more trees.
Drink for a day’s joy;
Marry for a month’s enjoyment;
Plant a tree for life -long happiness.
Most of the people know this saying. Some say that it is a Chinese saying. However, others say that its origin is Myanmar. It’s no matter to us whether the saying is Myan-mar or not. The essence is quite beneficial to the prevention of deforestation. If you want to remove the Diesease of the Earth, grow trees. If you want to avoid the evils of the nature, grow trees.
Arbour Month is on the way out. However, we still have tree growing season. Now is the best time to grow trees.
Grow more trees to save our Earth!
By U Maung Hlaing
(Ref: The Standard Time Daily, 7 August 2019)
