You pledged on World Water Day? Good, now get in action to defend ‘forests’ to save water
Mumbai, March 23: 22nd March was ‘World Water Day’: Every one of us pledged to save water so that we can, in future, save us! Many corners of our planet are facing a severe water crisis. Researchers, scientists, experts, environmentalists are looking out for solutions to tackle this crisis. Wait! Our planet has an artfully designed solution to the global water crisis: Trees.
Our planet already has specially designed ecosystems to heal itself. The answer to our water challenges lies in nature’s technology, especially in its forests and trees. Earth’s rainforests regulate global rainfall. Forests’ rainmaking ability holds the key to our planet’s water supply and rainfall patterns. Protecting our freshwater supply starts with defending our trees.
Our Earth is running out of freshwater, the life force that sustains us all. While 70% of the Earth is covered in water, only 3% of that is freshwater. And humans are consuming water at a rate faster than nature’s ability to replenish it.
Here are the visuals that reveal the scale of the risk our planet is posing and also highlight nature-based solutions to this global challenge. This is the effort taken by United Nations Development Programme UNDP that had reached out to Earth imaging company Planet.
While climate change is one of the top reason behind the diming green covers and deadly storms we face. But the declining forests cover is equally responsible for the climate change. They go hand in hand: hence we need to preserve the forests, trees to let our planet breathe and save humans.
At the current rate of water use, by 2050, more than half of the world’s population will be at risk of water shortages, according to Make Every Drop Count, a 2018 report from the United Nations and the World Bank on the global water crisis.
Forests are our strongest supporters in securing the freshwater resources life depends on. It is common knowledge that tree roots suck water from the soil to survive. But what is less known is the “rainmaker” role that trees play.
40% of our planet’s annual rainfall comes from evapotranspiration, which happens when trees “exhale” moisture through their leaves. The mist this creates can be seen by satellites all the way in outer space.
Taking Action
UNDP and UN partners work with countries to preserve the world’s largest rainforests, including the Amazon, the Congo Rainforest, and the forests of Papua New Guinea. Working with governments and businesses, we are looking at water governance (from administration and management to policies and laws) as a solution to restore the balance. UN-REDD is one example of this effort.
Since 2008, UNDP has been a part of UN-REDD, a partnership with the UN Food and Agriculture Organization and UN Environment. Together, we support governments as they create national policies and actions to protect forests, tackle illegal logging and plant more trees.
Saving Forests, Saving Us
Ascencio Patiachi is one of the oldest park rangers in the Amarakaeri Communal Reserve, deep in the Peruvian part of the Amazon, the largest rainforest on Earth. A few years ago, Patiachi headed into the Amazon to find ‘Harakmbut Face’, a sacred place to his indigenous people. Instead, he found a huge desert created by mining and logging in the heart of the reserve.
What Ascencio saw is no isolated incident. Planet satellites have captured before and after images of mining sites in the Amazon that throw the scale of the devastation into stark relief.
The Amazon is losing its ability to regulate rainfall because it’s losing too many trees. If current deforestation rates continue in the Amazon basin, global weather will be affected. The Americas, including Mexico, Texas and the Gulf of Mexico would be the hardest hit by more frequent severe weather conditions such as storms and heat waves.
Through the Amazon Indigenous REDD+ initiative, Ascencio and other rangers like him are working to save the forest that sustains life in their community and regulates weather across the globe.
Nature has always cuddled humans and animals on its lap. Showering love and health our trees and ecosystem have blessed us with resources and food even shelters. It is the time we get super serious about giving back to nature by defending our forests and trees.