Page 32 - ARUBA TODAY

A32 FEATURE
Friday 6 december 2019
Restoring forests 1 tree at a time, to help repair climate

By CHRISTINA LARSON with shallow roots or non-
Associated Press native trees that could en-
MADRE DE DIOS, Peru (AP) dure, but wouldn’t reach
Destruction of the forests their full height or restore
can be swift. Regrowth is the forest as it had been.
much, much slower. On Cheat Mountain and
But around the world, peo- at other former mining sites
ple are putting shovels to across Appalachia, more
ground to help it happen. than a million acres of for-
They labor amid spectacu- mer forests are in similar ar-
lar recent losses — the Am- rested development.
azon jungle and the Congo Now Michael French, di-
basin ablaze, smoke from rector of operations for the
Indonesian rainforests waft- Kentucky-based nonprofit
ing over Malaysia and Sin- Green Forests Work, and his
gapore, fires set mostly to colleagues are collaborat-
make way for cattle pas- ing with the U.S. Forest Ser-
tures and farm fields. Be- vice to restore native Ap-
tween 2014 and 2018, a palachian forests and the
new report says, an area rare species they support
the size of the United King- by first tearing down other
dom was stripped of forest trees.
each year. Green Forests Work has re-
Rebuilding woodland is A tree planted by police during “Operation Mercury” stands amid jungle destroyed by illegal forested around 800 acres
slow and often difficult miners, near a makeshift airstrip at the Balata police and military base in Peru’s Tambopata within the Monongahela,
work. And it requires pa- province on March 28, 2019. and it is taking a similar
tience: It can take several Associated Press approach to other former
decades or longer for for- programs take into ac- made carbon emissions Amazon, including the gi- mining sites across Appa-
ests to regrow as viable count native plant spe- since the start of the Indus- ant shihuahuaco, and test- lachia, having reforested
habitats, and to absorb the cies. They are managed trial Revolution. ed different fertilizers. Since around 4,500 total acres
same amount of carbon by groups with a sustained Other scientists dispute the project began three since 2009. Maria Coelho
lost when trees are cut and commitment to monitor- those calculations, while years ago, the team has da Fonseca Machado
burned. ing forests, not just one-off some fear the theoretical planted more than 42 hect- Moraes, nicknamed Dona
And yet, there is urgency to tree planting events. And promise of tree-planting as ares (115 acres) with native Graça, runs a tree nursery
that work forests are one usually, they economically an easy solution to climate seedlings, the largest refor- that grows seedlings of spe-
of the planet’s first lines of benefit the people who changes could distract estation effort in the Peru- cies native to Brazil’s lesser-
defense against climate live nearby for instance, people from the range vian Amazon to date. known jungle the Atlantic
change, absorbing as by creating jobs, or reduc- and scope of the responses After miners left West Vir- coastal rainforest.q
much as a quarter of man- ing erosion that damages needed. ginia’s Cheat Mountain in She collaborates with a
made carbon emissions homes or crops. But all agree that trees mat- the 1980s, there was an ef- nonprofit group called
each year. The impact could be great: ter. And in many places fort to green the coal min- Save the Golden Lion Tam-
Through photosynthesis, A recent study in the journal around the world, people ing sites to comply with U.S. arin, which works to pro-
trees and other plants use Science projected that if 0.9 are working to revive them: law. The companies used tect and restore the forest
carbon dioxide, water and billion hectares (2.2 billion — In a region of southeast- heavy machinery to push habitat of the endangered
sunlight to produce chemi- acres) of new trees were ern Peru called Madre de upturned soil back into namesake monkey. “The
cal energy to fuel their planted — around 500 bil- Dios, forestry researcher place, compacting the Atlantic rainforest is one of
growth; oxygen is released lion saplings — they could Jhon Farfan inspects lands mountainside with bulldoz- the planet’s most threat-
as a byproduct. As forests absorb 205 gigatonnes (220 where the forest has al- ers. The result was soil so ened biomes, more than
have shrunk, however, so gigatons) of carbon once ready been lost to illegal packed in that rainwater 90% of it was deforested,”
has an already overloaded they reached maturity. The gold mining. couldn’t seep down, and said Luis Paulo Ferraz, the
Earth’s capacity to cope Swiss researchers estimated After cutting and burning tree roots couldn’t expand. nonprofit’s executive sec-
with carbon emissions. this would be equivalent to centuries-old trees, min- Companies planted “des- retary. “What is left is very
Successful reforestation about two-thirds of man- ers used diesel pumps to peration species” grasses fragmented.”q
suck up deep layers of the
earth, then pushed the soil
through filters to separate
out gold particles. To turn
gold dust into nuggets, they
stirred in mercury, which
binds the gold together but
also poisons the land.
Left behind are patches of
desert-like land — dry, san-
dy, stripped of topsoil and
ringed by trunks of dead
trees.
Last December, Farfan and
Maria Coelho da Fonseca Machado Moraes, nicknamed Dona other scientists with the Pe- Forestry researcher Jhon Farfan carries saplings to replant a
Graça, delivers young trees that she raised, to the ONG Golden ru-based nonprofit CINCIA field damaged by illegal gold miners in Madre de Dios, Peru, on
Lion Tamarin Association in Silva Jardim, Brazil, Tuesday, April planted more than 6,000 March 29, 2019.
16, 2019. saplings of various species Associated Press
Associated Press native to this part of the