Forestation as Means of Fighting Against Climate Change II: The People

Although obvious, it is still painful to inform everyone that too little has changed since I posted the previous article about forestation and climate change. As a SITREP, global warming is still a threat, and deforestation is still one of the main causes for this pressing issue. However, instead of focusing on “the big bad”, especially now that the Holidays are just around the corner, in this article I will bring forward the positive side of the above issue: volunteers!

You have read the story of Minas Gerais in my latest post and you have seen the satisfying “before/after” pictures of the valley. This time, let’s continue in the same fashion, by studying another case of good practices and environment care, and zoom in on the Transylvania region of Romania, where a similar initiative brought together hundreds of volunteers and resulted in tens of thousands of trees planted.

Tășuleasa Social is an NGO that engages in all kinds of social-oriented activities, from fundraisers for charities, to sports and community projects. Their most ample projects are exactly the ones we are interested in: forestation actions. The ones that took place so far are called Transylvania Forest (Pădurea Transilvania), followed by a number (similar to games, books or movies).

The most recent one took place in November, it was called Via Transilvanica goes nuts, and it featured a forestation activity that saw around ~1500 volunteers, planting chestnut trees over the course of three days.

How it goes down:

Every year, usually in autumn, Tășuleasa Social opens a call for volunteers that results in the limit of maximum participants being exceeded in less that two days. On the day of the event, countless volunteer-filled buses leave for the designated location. These locations are usually small villages that could really use the benefits of forests, similar to the case of Minas Gerais. At the location, volunteers are first given the instructions for how to plant properly, then a few motivational speeches are given. After this brief introduction, shovels and saplings are handed out to everyone, music starts blasting from concert-range speakers, and everyone heads over to the area marked for planting. Needless to say, everyone enjoys the event, hundreds of thousands of trees are planted and at the end, all volunteers are rewarded with a hot meal. Needless to say, these actions are as sought as limited festival tickets, and this should not be a surprise, given how smooth everything goes and how volunteer-friendly the projects are.

Difficulties

Of course, such projects are attractive, enjoyable and their higher cause makes them invaluable. However, these events are not easy to host and manage, as problems of all kinds can occur. From what I have presented above, it is clear that the lack of volunteers is not among these problems. The costs, on the other hand, are more likely to be a threat. Most NGOs obtain their budgets through donations and sponsorships. Tășuleasa would be an exception, as they managed to get some powerful sponsors on their side (banks, for example), however, for most people or associations looking to start a project of this size, the costs would definitely be the first obstacle.

Another issue is the lack of support from the authorities. Tășuleasa received little backing from the state institutions that were supposed to be concerned with the issue of climate change. From what the NGO reported on their social media page, they did not even receive advice as to what species of trees might fare better in the chosen terrains, despite having sent several letters to the corresponding authorities. They do have the needed support now, however from what I could gather, it seems like they did not have an easy start.

A third main issue is the weather: weeks of planning and scheduling can go down the drain if the weather works against the people. Heavy rain can obviously be a show-stopper, however so are droughts, when the ground is so hard, that the shovels refuse to go in.

Lastly, for sizeable projects such as the ones organized by Tășuleasa Social, the logistics can also cause issues. Buses, food, shovels, saplings, speakers, volunteer certificate, participation bracelets and so on, are all items that someone has to think about when doing the planning. I would need a list only to go over all of them without repeating myself.

Wait, wasn’t this supposed to be a positive article?

 Despite all the possible problems mentioned above, forestation actions keep happening all around the globe. The reason for this, I believe, is that most (if not all) of the issues presented here can be solved with the help of people. Costs? As long as more and more people wish to participate, the number of sponsors and the amount they are willing to contribute with will increase. Donations will also increase. Support? The more volunteers there are, the more chances a project will attract attention. What is more, chances that some of the volunteers might have some sort of influence within an institution will also increase, possibly opening a few doors. At the very least, support via advice (for example, for choosing the right saplings) will also increase. Weather? Judging from how quick the lists of participants reach their limits, it is safe to assume that enough people willing to re-schedule will show up. Logistics? The more people involved, the higher the chances of obtaining all the required items.

As a conclusion, I would say that all that remains to be done, in order to successfully fight against climate change is to scale up the existing efforts. Both Minas Gerais and Tășuleasa Social are good examples that outstanding results are achievable. While support from the authorities is much-needed, the best solution for all the possible hardships remains the people.

Author: Vlad Draganel

P.S: The official website of Tășuleasa Social appeared to be down at the time when the above article was written. This being the case, I used information available on their Facebook page, combined with some of the my personal experiences as a volunteer in some of their forestation events.