The growing social awareness towards tree plantation that must be transformed at institutional level reaffirms the central role of forest landscape restoration in fighting and adapting to climate change, experts say.
Experts believe that the movement has been mobilizing communities across the country, and it is Ethiopia’s greatest opportunity to safeguard itself from climate change. Even though the country has contributed slightly to the global climate change problem, Ethiopians will be among those most affected, they explained.
Innovation Validation Project Lead at Ethiopian Agricultural Transformation Agency Dr. Habtemariam Abate says the people’s attitude towards planting trees and taking care of the seedlings up to the survival stage is growing from time to time, which is an asset to realize the Green Legacy Initiative.
He also says, “The society is now conscious of the fact that unless he or she is planting trees, his or her life will never continue much longer. Youths, elders and children are showing much interest into plant trees in the latest campaign. While expressing their feelings to the media; anyone can understand that if they are not participating in, they feel disadvantageous or done nothing to his or her country.”
In that, it is the time to dig deep while the peoples are showing interest to preserve their environment and develop the habit of planting trees till it becomes a national resource, Habtemariam explains.
He also stresses that if the seedlings could not get appropriate and sustainable follow up right after the implanting period, they will never survive any longer. Thus, to provide intensive care for plants, the plantation campaign should be followed by a nursing campaign until the seedlings could survive as forests, he noted.
According to Habtemariam, the current campaign is unique than that of the previous ones occurred since the Derg regime in terms of assigning a responsible institution to take care of the seedlings.
Regarding the outcome, Habtemariam says that afforestation has a fundamental role to combat climate change at national and international level; knowing its significance, the government has been exerting its utmost commitment planting over 300 million seedlings per day.
“Since it has got support from the international community, the country would be able to have broader opportunity to get financial support from the international development funds as agreed in the previous climate change negotiation forums.”
“The campaign would open the door to obtain much financial and infrastructural support from international financial institutions. In that, Ethiopia would never lose if it requests financial aid from the international community,” he added.
As to him, unless we plant trees annually continuously, global warming would affect the exchange from summer to winter seasons at the right time. If there is no adequate groundwater and river water, we would not raise a greater number of plants required to combat aridity.
Coordinator of the RED+ Program in Forest and Climate Change Commission Dr. Yitebitu Moges for his part says the trees planted in a campaign are supposed to survive since it has been granted to responsible institutions.
Previously, such kinds of campaigns were not executed in an organized manner. This year’s campaign is unique in terms of the increasing number of participating people, and the government’s commitment towards supporting the activity with modern technology at a national level is credible, Yitebitu believes.
According to Yitebitu, the coordination stretches from the federal to regional and district level in a manner in which the concerned government institutes take the responsibility of taking care of the seedlings till they survive. Of these, the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ethiopian Space Science Society, Ministry of Education, Forest and Climate Change Commission, Ministry of Water, Energy and Electricity, and the Ministry of Urban Planning and Development took the responsibility to maintain the well-being of the seedlings till they grow as a forest, he noted.
“Over the last half-century, the seedlings were planted by professionals who expertise in forest sciences; thus, the survival of the seedlings were much more successful. But, there was no coordinated campaign to plant trees. The role to take care of the plants were left to a single institute that has no accountability whether they are persistently checking its survival or not.”
He also stresses that the plantation that runs in a campaign won’t bear fruit unless a responsible body takes the role of watering the seedlings even during the dry seasons. Now, there is a coordinated campaign to plant and preserve the seedlings followed by technical support.
Yitebitu also agreed with Habtemariam in that developing forest will have an immense contribution in terms of adjusting the dry and rainfall seasons.
In this manner, the determination towards greenery will also have a greater contribution in combating climate change that affects the productivity of the country’s agriculture sector, he believes
The Ethiopian Herald August 10, 2019
BY ZELALEM GIRMA
