If we want to save this planet – our very home and the only one we have! – then we need to plant a tree or two.
Trees do not provide only food, shelter and medicine, they can also help stave off climate change.
A recent study showed that “half of the carbon dioxide emitted by burning fossil fuels is absorbed by plants.” The research also found out that “plants play a role about equal to the oceans in balancing the so-called greenhouse effect.”
In a press statement, Dr. Pieter P. Tans of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said “an analysis of thousands of air samples shows that planting trees and other plants could have a powerful effect in combatting the build-up of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.”
Dr. Tans and four other scientists analyzed carbon dioxide from more than 6,000 flasks that gathered during the study from throughout the Northern Hemisphere, from points on the oceans and from Australia.
Previous studies have found that most of the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere was absorbed by oceans. But the recent study of Dr. Tans and his colleagues “clearly shows” that there was a concentration of carbon dioxide “high enough to suggest that plants play a role equal to the ocean in absorbing the atmospheric gas.”
Most scientists agreed that high concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has caused a global temperature increase because of a phenomenon known as the greenhouse effect.
Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, as everyone know, allows sunlight to pass through to the Earth’s surface, but the gas molecules block heat from being radiated back into space, thus acting like glass panes in a greenhouse.
While contemplating on the said news report, I was reminded of the book, Forest Faces: Hopes and Regrets in Philippine Forestry, published in 2008 yet by the regional office of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the Environmental Science for Social Change (ESSC).
“In few countries of the world has forest management and its successes and failures been played out as dramatically as in the Philippines,” wrote then FAO assistant director-general He Changchui. “The rapid deforestation that has taken place over the past decades has been embedded with a unique context – one that has included vibrant civil society involvement and keen media attention on a range of forest-related issues including natural disasters, corruption, misuse and mismanagement, indigenous peoples’ rights and conflicts over the use and distribution of national endowments.”
That seems to summarize the status of the country’s forest resources. But on second thought, as Jack Westoby penned it, “Forestry is not about trees, it is about people.”
In his introduction, ESSC’s Peter Walpole wrote: “We often speak today of what makes up our forests, with the rich biodiversity and the natural ecosystems, splendid and full of resources, that sustain countless ecological services for our economy and society. But who are the people who give us our forests today?”
Walpole also wrote: “We all have images of forests in our minds, even if we have never seen a real or natural forest. Most of us can relate to the forest or the land, or to the trees of our childhood and the memories they conjure for us. Our grandparents in the provinces may be the sources of our lifetime memory of the forest or verdant riverbanks. For many, the fresh sweet scents of the land and air and the cool sensation of shade and water dominate most recollections. Forests are an inspiration for art and music and our creative aspirations.”
Let’s take a closer look at how some of these people – as featured in the book – look at forests and their memories.
“I must say I served my happiest years visiting these forest communities, seeing things grow, seeing people working together,” said Victor O. Ramos, who served as head of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) from 1995 to 1998.
“If we care less for the forest, we will not live without the forest. I cannot live without the forest. Without the forest, I feel different in the city seeing big buildings. It is too hot. In the forest, it is cool and I hear the sounds of different birds. The changes make me reflect and mixes me up in how I think,” said Dante Sinhayan, a tribal leader in the uplands of Bukidnon.
Joey Ayala, musician and songwriter, has this to say: “We must find a space for the forestal spirit, so that the spirit nature of man will survive accordingly with nature, with capitalism, with the drive for efficiency.”
Patrick Dugan, the son of a Kankanna-ey mother and an American father, who is an agroforestry specialist, said: “Establishing forests is kinda sentimental for me. I am just stunned by the appreciation of what’s there, God’s creation. Look, we’re a hilly country, and what grows best here? Trees!”
Datu Michael “Mike” Mastura, a noted lawyer, lecturer, peace negotiator, and author from Maguindanao, asked: “Forests are something we need to sort out. Do we have any idea of what is declared as forest area, a clear-cut classification? Are they rational, realistic?”
Elisea “Bebet” Gozun, also a former DENR Secretary, recalled: “I grew up in Manila, but originally came from Cebu City. I’m now settled here in Marikina City, but I like open spaces, climbing trees. Even if I was growing up in a largely urban setting, we used to swim in Angat when I was in high school, and that was where I saw a forest and it was beautiful. We also used to swim in Manila Bay regularly and I remember dipping our boiled bananas in the saltwater so that they’re tastier. Until one time, we saw something floating, and that was the last time I swam there.”
Ah, memories are made of these!
