Planting For The Future

I'm a big fan of planting trees.  Out of one small seeds comes something large and worthwhile: a tree.  And that tree can provide services for people like shade, food, and nitrogen-fixation among other for years and years, even decades.  Yet, poverty and intensive use of forest resources are causing deforestation on a wide-scale here in Zambia.  And, unfortunately, trees aren't being put back in place of those cut.  There is a lot of deforestation, but minimal reforestation.  It's a serious problem with long-term impacts.

At my house I continuously have trees in a tree nursery.  The children help me fill the pots, I water them, then together we plant the trees.  I've found that naming trees after individual children gives a sense of ownership and excitement to the kids, which I hope will lead to better sense of how caring about their local forest resources and the environment as a whole.

In my community we're trying to alleviate some of these issues by planting our own trees. With some help from the village's kids, we've been busy planting trees, trees, and more trees.  I plant all kinds of trees: some that live a long time (red mahogany and other local species), some that can be used for food (mangoes, guavas, moringas), some that improve soil fertility (msangu, tephrosia, and pigeon pea), and some that just look nice (jacaranda and flamboyant).  Trees serve a variety of purposes, so I've aimed to plant a wide-array of them.

Anything can be used in a tree nursery to hold seedlings, even Pop-Tarts boxes from the United States.  Although black plastic bags, provided by the Forestry Department, work the best.

I think that part of the issue with replanting projects is that it takes a lot of planning ahead and looking to the future in order to be successful, and neither of things can be simply taught.  Instead, they take years of education and behavior change to really develop.  So, we're chipping away at old notions that the forests are infinite and looking at them as valuable, truly invaluable, and finite resources worth careful management. 

It hasn't been easy though and I've had to try a lot of different techniques.  Some worked a little bit, some failed badly, and none have been overwhelming successes - except one.  That would be working with kids.  Kids love to help me with projects and there is no other project that I want more help with than planting trees.  

Darius, seen here, is posing with a msangu tree that I helped him plant in his maize field.  Msangu is one of the best trees an African farmer can plant for improving and maintaining their soil's fertility.  After ten years of growth the tree will produce enough Nitrogen fertilizer that they'll no longer have to use more expensive synthetic fertilizers.

To me, planting trees is also a kind of legacy project at some level.  I know that if I help a farmer plant trees that benefit their lives then they'll be able to look at the tree and remember that I was there, but more importantly what I taught: trees are just as necessary as clean water and air - without them we would have a far less worthwhile life.  It sounds narcissistic, I admit this, but I do think that as a volunteer I have to think along these lines to a certain extent by using what influence I have to create an interest and desire to use what is taught / what is learned to benefit the future.  

Planting a tree isn't planting for tomorrow or even the week after... it's planting for the long-term future and the long-term well-being of a community.  It isn't an easy concept to pass on, but it is absolutely important.

Here a field of cotton has been intercropped with msangu trees.  The cotton is gaining the benefit of nitrogen-fixation courtesy of the msangu trees.  Systems of integrating trees into agricultural and normal, everyday living systems is key to reducing deforestation and improving people's lives in a meaningful way.  Not doing so is the same as offering no solution.

My boss at Peace Corps loves to say, "The best time to plant a tree was ten years ago, the second best time is today."  I take that to heart and will keep on planting for the future.