PLANTING ECONOMIC TREES FOR CARBON POSITIVE AND CLIMATE CHANGE RESILIENCE

Climate shocks are more on the way. We have already spewed so much carbon into the atmosphere arising from the way we use energy (oil exploration, gas flaring and fuel combustion from transportation, industrial and mechanical equipments), that a cascade of worsening crop failure, drought, flood and so on is virtually guaranteed. We all feel the effect, hence this call for resilience building in our societies. Building resilience means helping society to work more like the ecosystem.

Climate resilience can be generally defined in two ways. As the capacity for a socio-ecological system

1.  to absorb stresses and maintain function in the face of external stresses imposed upon it by climate change and
2. to adapt, reorganize, and evolve into more desirable configurations that improve the sustainability of the system, leaving it better prepared for future climate change impacts.

With the rising awareness of climate change impacts by both national and international bodies like this body - TEDI, building climate resilience has become a major goal. The key focus of climate resilience efforts is to address the vulnerability that communities, states, and countries currently have with regards to the environmental consequences of climate change. Currently, climate resilience efforts encompass social, economic, technological, and political strategies that are being implemented at all scales of society. In this paper, we will look at planting of economic trees which can be seen under the social strategy of building climate change and carbon positive resilience environment. From local community action to global treaties, addressing climate resilience is becoming a priority, although it could be argued that a significant amount of the theory has yet to be translated into practice. Despite this, there is a robust and ever-growing movement fuelled by local and national bodies alike geared towards building and improving climate resilience. Note that climate change resilience is not the same as climate change adaptation.

Why Trees?

The forest which is a conglomerate of trees is the safest ecological environment and atmosphere for plant and human. This is due to the constant absorption, exchange and release of gaseous compounds from and to the atmosphere. But according to United Nations Environment Programme, 80 percent of the world’s original forests in the last decade have been lost. Hence tree planting is urgently enjoined. Moreover:

·        Trees are the world’s single source of breathable oxygen

·        Tree gives us much needed oxygen and sequester carbon dioxide

·        Trees increase biodiversity

·        Trees fix nitrates into soil, making it more fertile to grow other plants like vegetables

·        Trees improve an area’s water quality

Planting of economic trees (agroforestry) isone of the most conspicuous land use systems across land scape and agroecological zones in Africa. Interest in agroforestry is increasing due to food shortages and increase treat of climate change and release of carbon, also its potential to address these treats to human and plants. As the name implies, economic trees provide assets and income, as well as improved soil fertility, enhancement of local climate condition, providence of ecosystem services and reduces human impact on natural forest. Atmospheric green house gas concentration is a key importance of economic trees.

India as the world’s second most populous country among other problems she faces, is preparing for the inevitable effect of climate change. In her National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC) published in 2008, covering one third of the country with trees was among the goals. This is to improve the resiliency on climate change in the country.

Agroforestry: Potential Resilient Strategy

Cultivated lands have the potential to contribute significantly to climate change mitigation by improved cropping practices and greater number of trees on farms. The global estimated potential of all greenhouse gas (GHG) sequestration in agriculture ranges from approximately 1,500 to 4,300 Mt CO2eyr^-1; with about 70 percent from developing countries. In the sub-Sahara Africa according to research, 15 percent of farms have tree cover of at least 30 percent. Also, tree densities in farming landscapes range from low cover of about 5 percent in the Sahel to more than 45 percent in humid tropical zones where cocoa, coffee and palm oil agroforestry system prevails. From the aforementioned, Africa has high potential for sequestering carbon and reducing GHG emissions but there should be more effort and not retreating. Agroforestry which is planting of economics trees have 3-4 times more biomass than traditional treeless cropping system and also constitute largest carbon sink after primary forest and long term fallows.

Microclimatic improvement through agroforestry has a major impact on crop performance. This is because trees can buffer climatic extremes that affect crop growth. The shading effect of agroforestry can buffer temperature and atmospheric saturation deficit – reducing exposure to supra-optimal temperatures, under which physiological and developmental processes and yield become increasingly vulnerable. Scattered trees in agroforestry farms can enhance the understory growth by reducing incident solar radiation, air and soil temperature, while improving water status, gas exchange and water use efficiency.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_resilience; http://www.greenpop.org/why-trees/; http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1877343513001255. (all accessed on 7th September, 2015)