African countries have been urged to continuously embark on tree planting to save the Earth from destruction.
The African Coalition of Communities Responsive to Climate Change (ACCRCC) in a statement to mark the 2023 Earth Day in Kenya, said grassroots communities need the support with resources, and energy to solve climate change, other environmental ill and take care for the mother earth.
Dr Roselid Nkirote, the executive director of the African Coalition of Communities Responsive to Climate Change (ACCRCC) noted the Earth Day 2023 raises the consciousness to take action that could save the only planet mankind has.
Dr Nkirote urged grassroots communities in the east and horn of Africa to embark on massive tree planting exercises at this time when the region is experiencing rainfall in bid to restore degraded lands.
She noted that the region could take advantage of the ongoing rainfall to safeguard against the debilitating effects of drought experienced over the last two years.
She said, “Let me use this Earth Day 2023 to urge our communities to take advantage of the rains to rejuvenate badly damaged landscape. We are just coming from very serious drought that negatively impacted livelihoods.”
She lauded several climate actions undertaken by the governments in the East and Horn of Africa.
“In Kenya for example, the government has launched a campaign to plant 15 billion trees over the next year while Uganda is in the process of decentralizing climate actions to the local authorities.
“In Tanzania, the government plans to massively invest technology to improve water harvesting in bid to mitigate the effect of climate change,” she informed.
Speaking on one of environmental concerns in East Africa, she said drought affected mostly areas inhabited by the pastoralists, areas that naturally receive below-average rains and poor pasture – leading to hundreds of thousands of people to flee their homes in search of water and pasture for their animals.
The statement also cited a report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which warned of worse consequences if urgent actions, such as restoration of the earth’s capacity to sequester carbon are not taken to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
Earth Day is an annual event celebrated on April 22 dedicated to raising awareness about environmental issues and promoting sustainable practices. The first Earth Day was held in 1970 and is now observed in more than 190 countries around the world.
