Trees can supply five basic needs plus more

BANTAY GOBYERNO

Ike Señeres

Finally, there seems to be a growing awareness among our people that the uncontrolled cutting of trees in our forests has something to do with the onslaught of floods in our plains and lowlands. Perhaps it is better late than never, but at least some politicians and even some media people are already talking about planting trees in our mountains.

Perhaps most of them do not yet know that reforestation takes more than just planting trees, but never mind that, because at least they are already starting to appreciate the need for it and for me, that is good enough, at least for now.

At the risk of stating the obvious, I would still say that it was already widely known that more denuded forests would mean more floods, and yet it is only now that this direct correlation is being understood by more people more than ever.

I would also say that because of the fear factor, most people would be willing to implement reforestation programs even if the only benefit is the prevention of floods. There is good news however, because there are at least five other benefits from reforestation. And, there is even better news is that all these four benefits are basic needs that we could not leave without.

The first benefit of reforestation is the renewable and continuing supply of water. Without trees, the rainwater from the mountains would rush down to the lowlands, often in the form of floods and sometimes, flash floods. With trees however, the rainwater is absorbed in the roots of the trees and would eventually flow down to the lowlands not in the form of floods, but in the form of harmless water supplies to the rivers, lakes, wetlands, watersheds and aquifers. Without this harmless flow of water, these five natural water repositories could potentially dry up.

The second benefit of reforestation is the renewable and continuing supply of food in the form of fruits, leaves and roots. As I see it, there has to be diversity in the planting and growing of trees and fruit trees should be a major component. An example of leaves is moringa and an example of roots is bamboo shoots. Because of the biodiversity approach however, the restored forests should also produce all kinds of grains and vegetables, primarily for the consumption of the settlers and secondarily for commercial selling.

The third benefit of reforestation is the renewable and continuing supply of fuel in the form of firewood and charcoal. Conventional wisdom tells us that charcoal is not an eco-friendly product because of the slash and burn practices of some people in the mountains who slash and burn trees in order to produce it. As I see it however, this issue is subject to the law of supply and demand. In theory, there is no problem about cutting trees for as long as these are commercially grown.

The fourth benefit of reforestation is the renewable and continuing supply of electricity that is produced using gasifier or dendro-thermal technology. Generally speaking, this technology could fall under the biomass category except that the feedstock used is smaller in the form of woodchips. That is so because the gasifier technology requires any cellulosic fuel, of which the best is wood. Just like firewood and charcoal, this is subject to the law of supply and demand. Besides, in the case of woodchips, there is no need to cut the trees because it is enough to just trim the branches.

The fifth benefit of reforestation is the renewable and continuing supply of air. Clean air, that is. In theory, air could become so polluted to an extent that it could no longer support life. Of course smog is a problem, but that is not all because harmful elements in the air may not even be visible to the human eye. As we know it, trees have a dual function because aside from producing oxygen, they also absorb carbon dioxide. Not only that, trees also produce the moisture that eventually becomes rain, hence the full cycle is completed.

If water, food, fuel, electricity and clean air are not enough motivations for us to plant and grow trees, then perhaps the promise of money could. First of all, the first four benefits already have money values so to speak, but there is actually more money to be made in planting and growing trees. The first source of money is the debt for nature swap, a system of transactions wherein the foreign debt of a developing country could be forgiven (considered paid) for as long as that country will invest in local nature conservation measures, including the planting and growing of trees.

The second source of money is the carbon credits scheme, a system of transactions wherein the estimated greenhouse gas production of a country (or company) is offset by their purchase of carbon credits from another country (or company), in a way paying cash for their sins against the environment. There are many ways of earning carbon credits, among which is the planting and growing of trees. It could be sad that the agreements reached during the 21stmeeting of the Conference of Parties (COP21) have given new hope that the carbon credits scheme will gain more adherents..

The flash floods and landslides caused by the cutting of trees cost money aside from the loss of lives and limbs. Even if we could no longer bring back the perfection of the natural forests as these were made by God, we can still come close to it for as long as we adopt the biodiversity approach rather than the plantation style approach. This is no longer an abstract idea, because a few dedicated men have already done it, among them are two members of the Corinthian Coffee Clutch, namely Joe Reynolds and Joe Reano.

As I wrote in a previous article, I think it would be a good idea to delegate the task of reforestation to the provincial governments, but giving them the budgets and the technologies to do it. It is very obvious that the people in the provinces would directly benefit from the renewable and continuing supply of water, food, fuel, electricity and clean air, but to be fair to them, they should also be given their full share of whatever the national government could earn out of the debt for nature swaps and the carbon credits scheme. It would be fair to say that the love of nature would be enough to motivate everyone, but it would also help everyone if they would also have money.

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