A study published in Nature Climate Change estimates how deforestation from the start of the industrial era to recent times has affected temperatures throughout the year for a range of countries across the globe.
This has resulted in deforestation as a key contributor to human-caused climate change.
Tree planting has great potential in helping to stop climate change and restore biodiversity.
In most developing nations, tree planting has become a cornerstone of many environmental campaigns in recent years contributing much to fighting climate change.
Global warming and deforestation pose a huge threat to the important role forests play in protecting the planet for sustainable development.
With increased industrialisation and human activities on the planet, planting trees has rapidly emerged as a simple way to soak up carbon emissions.
Everybody is pushing for a rapid expansion of reforestation efforts to help meet climate goals and fix climate change.
The current rate of deforestation across the globe has steadily increased due to numerous human activities such as farming, charcoal burning, industrialization, and mining among others, resulting in increased carbon emissions.
Devastating wildfires have also contributed to huge losses of trees in forests and land cover and especially during the dry seasons.
According to scientists, planting billions of trees across the world is one of the biggest and cheapest ways of taking carbon out of the atmosphere to tackle the climate crisis.
Planting trees is the key way to meet reforestation goals and ensure nature is protected.
Protecting the existing forests and encouraging natural regeneration, shouldn't be forgotten in the reforestation process.
As governments and individuals pledge and commit to undertake large-scale tree planting strategies to tackle climate change and restore biodiversity in a country, it is important to note that the method of reforestation or afforestation is just as important as the number of trees to put on the soil.
Emphasis should also be put in place on how many trees are planted rather than how many survive.
This calls for developing guidelines and frameworks on what seeds will thrive in different environments, especially as climate change shifts plant species to new regions.
For any developing country that needs to fix climate change through tree planting, it calls for proper policies and guidelines since it’s a thorough and long-term process.
The government needs to run tree-planting campaigns regularly and sensitise its citizens on the need to plant as many trees as possible and how to sustain the process.
Where possible, the government should provide seedlings to make the process affordable.
We should all take collective responsibility and preserve our nature.
Make a change for a conducive environment and a better future for the next generation.
Communications and public relations specialist
Edited by Kiilu Damaris
