By Amin Kef Sesay
Saving our forests from the chainsaw and axe of encroaching humanity is essential to the health and productivity of much of the country’s largely rural based economy, experts point out. They cite the forests’ roles as watersheds, defenses against soil erosion and regulators of local weather conditions thus the need for a stand-alone Ministry of Forestry as there is much to be done.
Changing the way the Government and people living in the forested areas of the country value forests, is critical to the survival of those forests which by regulating temperatures and trapping and releasing moisture during the hot dry season, create the climate conditions needed for rain to fall.
For example, deforestation around the Bumbuna dam which provides Makeni and Freetown with electricity has caused the dam’s water level not to reach its normal level. This definitely will affect the supply of electricity to the city as soon as the dry season starts.
The scale of the problem, the corruption and contempt for law that accompany it – the World Bank notes, “Undermine any nation’s attempt to achieve sustainable economic growth, social balance and environmental protection.”
The fate of the forests spells the difference between success and failure in the race against global warming. Trees, the dominant inhabitants of the diverse and complex ecological systems called forests, are among the world’s largest and most efficient living storehouses of carbon monoxide, the “greenhouse gas” most responsible for the earth’s temperature rise and changes in the planet’s climate.
Preserving our surviving tropical forests and planting new trees to replace those lost to deforestation could help reduce the severity of climate change by absorbing more carbon from the air, and ease the local impact of climate change by regulating local weather conditions.
Poor forest management policies — including unrestricted logging, mining, shifting cultivation farming, and excessive harvesting of firewood contribute to the problem. The collection of wood for heating and cooking and for making charcoal is a particular problem, since wood supplies about 70 per cent of domestic energy needs.
The conversion of forest land to agriculture, both subsistence and commercial, is by far the most common and most destructive cause of deforestation. As demand for farmland grows in response to population pressures, thousands of hectares of tropical forests are being put to the torch annually.
The FAO noted in a 2000 report on sustainable forestry in Africa, “that the key to arresting deforestation and to implementing sustainable forest development lies in improved technologies for food production.”
Everyone in the forest conservation and perseveration business has agreed that preserving our remaining tropical forests and planting new trees to replace those lost to deforestation could help reduce the severity of climate change by absorbing more carbon from the air and trapping more precipitation in the clouds.
Different kinds of forests provide different kinds of services, and that finding the right match is a vital part of sustainable forestry. Indigenous forests store more carbon, regulate weather conditions better and contain more and more varied biodiversity than tree plantations and reforested areas.
The political dimension is very important in forest protection and perseveration. Preserving and expanding our forests will require a mix of sound forestry practices and greater appreciation of the real financial value of forest eco-systems.
Reforestation and commercial forestry are important for creating a renewable source of wood products and a buffer between humanity and the ancient trees.
Establishing agro-forestry practices on land outside of forests and improving the soil quality and other services the land can provide can be economically done by communities by using trees to prevent wind and water erosion of topsoil, trap and recycle plant nutrients and provide a renewable source of energy, wood products, animal fodder and other valuable materials to farmers.
