GREEN WORLD OPPORTUNITIES

      Afforestation is when new trees are planted or seeds are sown in an area where there were no trees before. In other words, creating a new forest.

Reforestation on the other hand is the process of planting trees in a forest where the number of trees has been decreasing.

 They both refer to planting of trees in order to compensate for the forest losses.

      Afforestation/Reforestation are the two leading nature-based solutions for tackling the effects of climate change. For commercial foresters and landowners (they basically practice reforestation) these two practices are essential to ensuring they can grow wood for wood products and continuously meet demand in a sustainable way.

     Reforestation/afforestation isn’t just about planting trees or saving the ecosystem,it also boosts the economy thus creating job opportunities for all and sundry.

    Trees are not only useful when it comes to forests, they can also be great on hot sunny days for they provide shade.  It increases the overall quality of life for people due to the improvement in air quality and the provision of natural activities therefore leading to social cohesion. Ecotourism is also a source of income and not just that, people get employed to tend and look after the growing forests for they are also important in maintaining ecological balance and that’s a win win in that aspect.

   Planting trees can be a serious business for some locals may even be able to make their own business out of afforestation/reforestation  project by planting high numbers of tree, they could produce timber or charcoal and sell it to local stores so it actually curbs unemployment too so fewer people have to suffer from poverty.

      Also for big project a high number of people are needed to carry out the exhausting manual work. In turn, this can also lower unemployment rates of the local population and provide them with a higher average income.

     Assurance of steady wood supplies is also another ups of afforestation/reforestation for we use wooden trees, floors, cupboards, utensils, furnitures, paper, tissues, toothpicks,etc quite often in our daily lives. Moreover, also the charcoal for your barbecue and cooking comes from wood as a raw material 

     Afforestation can also assure the protection of endangered species in many animals and plants that are currently on endangered species list are only on that list since we have destroyed their natural habitats. It should be our responsibilities to restore what we destroyed and by planting enough trees, we can give those animals and plants a new home so they could multiply again. Only then it will be possible for us to assure a large variety of different animals and plants which we can show to our children.

    Another upside of afforestation is that it can prevent the desertification of large areas of land. If an area of land is not used for farming or for other purposes, chances are that it will look like a desert sooner or later, especially in hot and dry climate zones. However we as humanity cannot afford the desertification of those areas of land since our world population is growing and we need to use our land efficiently in order to be able to feed as many as possible. Thus, in order to prevent desertification and the related adverse effects, planting trees is a good option since trees will sustain a certain level of water in the ground.

      Afforestation is basically what we practice here in northern Nigeria because of the nature of our climate and topography

     Have I also mentioned that afforestation can help prevent landslides and erosions for their roots helps stabilize the soil

Fun facts

there are 7 billion hectares of treeless land on earth, where 1.2 trillion native saplings could naturally grow through afforestation.

Increasing the earths forest cover by 25% could absorb 200 gigaton more carbon monoxide from the atmosphere without infringing on existing cities or agricultural land.