The authorities in Botswana are set to borrow a leaf from Ethiopia’s tree-planting Prime Minister, Abiy Ahmed by getting their hands dirty and head off climate change in the drought-prone southern African country .
Ahmed’s campaign was to plant four billion trees in Ethiopia to combat deforestation and global warming and his country is on course to achieve that feat as it recently planted 350 million trees in one day, setting a world record in the process.
While Botswana may not come close to achieving a similar feat, it has jumped on the bandwagon as it has embarked on a project which has similar objectives inspired by Ethiopia’s project aimed at tackling the effects of deforestation and climate change in the drought-prone country.
The project has been launched by Forest Conservation Botswana, a non- profit making organization which has the financial backing of the Botswana government and the United States.
According to Forest Conservation Botswana spokesperson, Lorato Mongatane, her organisation is launching a mass tree-planting campaign known as Trees for Life.
She said through the campaign, 10 000 trees are targeted to be planted across five regions, Molepolole, Ramotswa villages in southern Botswana, Palapye in the central part of the country, Maun in the north and Tsabong village in the west.
The exercise which will last nine months will set the stage for the whole nation to rally into action, she added.
“The campaign will be launched in Molepolole by the Minister of Environment, Natural Resources Conservation and Tourism Kitso Mokaila on 13 August 2019. A budget of $100 000 has been approved for the campaign,” she said.
Mongatane said Botswana is already feeling the impact of climate change having recorded the hottest summer in 2018. \
“With the number of heat wave days set to increase, trees will play an important role in reducing their impact across our homes,” she said.
Through this campaign, Mongatane said Forest International Botswana aims to mitigate climate change through tree planting, stimulate tree planting culture at community level and improve health and wellness of newborns and mothers, thereby increasing quality of life and life expectancy through improved air quality.
“Trees by nature represent life, growth and peace and what better way to celebrate life than planting a tree for a newborn baby. New life, new tree towards mitigating the impact of climate change,” said Mongatane.
Despite the fact that Botswana commemorates the National Tree Planting Day every year, the initiate seem to have achieved little success.
The main objectives of the National Tree Planting Day is to create awareness on the need to plant trees to reduce depletion of the forest and range resources, reduce pressure on natural woodland around densely populated areas which use a lot of firewood and to combat soil erosion, desertification and reclaim degraded lands leading to environmental conservation.
The country’s National tree planting activity started in 1985 to conform to the United Nations International Year of Forests.
This was in recognition of the continued depletion of forests, accelerated soil erosion, depletion of water resources, high fuel wood harvesting patterns, changes in microclimates and desertification that creates serious environmental problems.
It is celebrated annually during the last Saturday of November.
KO/as/APA