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Arbor Month kicks off at Freedom Park
The Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE) and partnering organisations opened Arbor Month recently at Freedom Park, Salvokop.
The event was led by Deputy Minister of the DFFE, Bernice Swarts accompanied by MEC for Environment Shyla Peters, together with Finance MMC, Jacqui Uys.
Arbor Month calls on South Africans to plant indigenous trees as a practical and symbolic gesture of sustainable environmental management.
The year’s theme was “Celebrating 30 Years of Freedom: Promoting environmental conservation and sustainable forest management”.
The event took place on September 8 and involved tree planting in nearby locations and a donation of 80 fruit trees by the department to the metro.
The trees were planted in three different areas of the metro – Kalafong Park in Atteridgeville, Springbok Park in Fountain Valley and Freedom Park.
The day concluded with the different stakeholders offering their messages of support, committing to taking environmental education further by supporting the DFFE’s #10milliontrees planting campaign.
“Arbor Month is important as it celebrates and creates awareness of the vital role that trees play in the fight against deforestation and climate change. By the end of this Arbor Month, DFFE will have planted 3 500 trees around the city, forming part of the presidential #10MillionTreesProgramme,” Swarts said.
Swarts planted a tree at Kalafong Park in Atteridgeville, naming it “Resilience” and another she named “Quality Assurance”. She said she gave the trees these names to represent the standards and quality that South African trees and forests must strive to meet.
“Trees play a crucial in improving the quality of our air, so we must all ensure we continue to plant them to live well in South Africa,” Swarts said.
Uys was in attendance as a representative of the MMC for Environmental Management.
“Tshwane Mayor Cilliers Brink always says that we need to make the choices today that will bring us to where we want to be in years to come, and planting trees is definitely one of those choices,” Uys said.
Peters said that tree planting reserves are the adverse effects of climate change and aims to make the province resilient against it.
“We need to ensure that in us enhancing and planting trees there must be job creation also for the different communities. We need to ensure that we go into all communities within Gauteng and make sure we don’t leave anyone behind. People have depended on trees throughout the ages, they offer us shelter, shade, food, fuel, medicine, timber and numerous other uses. They are essential for replenishing the oxygen supply,” Peters concluded.
Watch here: Arbor Month Video
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