Apart from raising awareness, the main objective behind celebrating the day is to ‘celebrate the importance of all types of forests’ as they play an essential role in providing food, water and shelter.
Representational image. Wikimedia Commons
International Day of Forests is marked annually on 21 March around the world. It is a day to raise awareness among people concerning the values, significance and contributions of forests to balance the life cycle of humans.
This year, the theme for this special day is “Forests and sustainable production and consumption”. Apart from raising awareness, the main objective behind celebrating the day is to ‘celebrate the importance of all types of forests’ as they play an essential role in providing food, water and shelter.
In 2012, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and United Nations (UN) established the day to combat climate change. Every year on this day, leading government networks and private organisations come together to enlighten people about the importance of forests and the role they play in our lives.
As we celebrate the day, here are some reasons why forest conservation is important:
Trees play a significant role in our lives by giving out oxygen that we need to survive. With deforestation, which is a purposeful clearing of forested land, factors such as climate imbalance, greenhouse gas emission, soil erosion, flooding, and others, can badly affect human life.
Forests also influence weather events, especially rainfall, with their network of transpiration process and tree roots. As per reports, it is estimated that more than 1.5 billion people directly depend on forests for livelihood. Therefore, decline in forest cover can threaten survival.
Every tree has its own medicinal benefit, especially Pacific Yew and Moringa. They are known as treasure troves for medicine by people in large numbers.
Excessive destrcution of forest cover can upset the whole ecosystem of the region and adversely affedct all life forms inhabiting the area.
To make this day a memorable one, several countries around the world participate and take steps in order to save the forests. These measures include conducting events, campaigns or activities for forests and trees as well as afforestation.
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