Million trees project restarted

Minister of the Environment and National Beautification, Adrian Forde, is reminding Barbadians to respect the environment and also to be respectful of nature and the impact they have on it.

His comments came as Barbados’ Million Trees initiative restarted in earnest today, with the beginning stages of a new orchard being planted in rural St. Andrew. During the planting of some 50 fruit trees in the area of Nature Fun Ranch by the young ranchers, Minister Forde said trees and vegetation played an integral role in the protection of Barbados’ natural resources.

“I want to tell every Barbadian that this is the one thing that will prevent the existential threat known as global warming. The ability of the trees to sequester carbon dioxide, the provision of shade, the ability to take dust as you see around us from the atmosphere, the ability to take harmful nitrates and phosphates, the usage of trees goes on and on,” he said

The Million Trees project had several events planned for the duration of 2020, but because of COVID-19, most of these exercises were rescheduled for later dates. With Forde being the new Minister of Environment and National Beautification, he promised that the project was now fully back on track.

“We’ve had the unfortunate episode as it relates to the COVID pandemic, which stopped a lot of activities not only in a small country like Barbados, but across the world. So, I am saying today that I am happy to restart something, and recommit this entire Government to the tree-planting exercise, recognizing of course, that there is a new maxim called ‘Trees Save Lives’,” Forde stated.

Senior Technical Officer of the National Botanical Gardens, and acting head of the Million Trees project, Nigel Jones, thanked the minister for restarting the project, but expressed that more needed to be done in the area of forestry on the island.

“I just want to say we have to change our focus. Everyone wants to do law, everyone wants to do medicine, everyone wants to do land surveying and engineering. It is time that we set aside some money in the annual budget specifically for training in forestry, tree science and biodiversity. Whenever you go to an international conference, it gets centred [on] trees and forestry. If doctors go to a conference, they talk about medicine and extracts from various trees. If you go on a meeting about climate change, it is centred on forestry and carbon sequestration. All I am saying, is that it’s about time we have training in this area, and maybe we should have a policy shift,” Jones suggested.

Minister Forde also revealed that in an effort to get more young Barbadians involved in planting trees, there would be a competition launched soon within schools, with prizes being awarded for the most trees planted, and beautification projects. Details about this competition will be made public at a later date.
(SB)