The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, has pledged to support a major environmental programme by planting and caring for more than 9 million trees this year in areas of human displacement.
The gesture is aimed at making up for some of the environmental damage caused by refugees and displaced people around the world and to fight climate change.
The main problem in areas of displacement is deforestation as refugees and internally displaced persons need to cut and collect wood for cooking, to provide light, for construction and for natural medical ingredients and fodder.
People also cut down trees to create areas for cultivation or to sell the wood in markets and have an additional income.
The resultant damage is a major concern for host countries and local populations because the land can take years, if ever, to recover.
UNHCR wants to help by joining a major tree-planting campaign run by the UN Environmental Programme (UNEP).
UNEP launched “Plant for the Planet: The Billion Tree Campaign” in November last year and it has so far won pledges to plant more than 960 million trees, while almost 14 million have actually been planted to date.
The agency is encouraging individuals, communities, business and industry, civil society organizations and governments to take part.
UNHCR will enlist the help of refugees and host communities.
In Tanzania, for instance, the goal is to plant more than 2.6 million saplings in and around refugee camps.
In Sudan, 1.7 million trees will be planted later this year in settlement areas for refugees and displaced people as well as around the homes of host communities. T
he target in neighbouring Ethiopia is to plant 1.8 million trees.
The idea for the UNEP campaign was inspired by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Wangari Maathai, whose Green Belt Movement has planted more than 30 million trees in 12 countries in Africa since 1977.
UNHCR and its implementing partners have developed programmes to educate refugees and displaced people about the environment and show them how to plant and care for a tree.
The agency has helped plant trees over hundreds of thousands of acres of land in Asia and Africa since the 1990s.
Kilde: www.unhcr.org
