Arbor Day: Worldwide Honouring of Trees

For the inhabitants of Peking, the Gobi desert is getting too close for comfort. Infamous sandstorms, “Sha chen bao”, turn the sky brown, hiss through the streets, get caught in corners and invade houses through the tiniest cracks in windows and doors. This spooky gatecrasher from Northern Provinces upsets people by visits that are increasingly frequent and violent, and forces them to wear protective masks (if they really cannot afford to stay at home during the storms) and even shuts Airport traffic down because of bad visibility.

A Chinese proverb warns: “No shade tree? Blame not the sun but yourself.” Indeed! Large already-fallow regions in Mongolia and in North China, as well as the continued intense livestock breeding contribute to ever growing desertification. Goats pull up the last plants so that no roots are left to keep the soil in place. Consequently large regions are being swept clean of humus layers. The situation has become so dramatic that, nowadays, one third of the Chinese landmass has already turned into barren regions and no end of this development is anywhere in sight. Huge efforts are underway to stop that catastrophe but the chances of success are more than questionable – impressive sand dunes 70 kilometres away from Peking are stern reminders of the enormity of the problem.

But China is not alone in facing Arbor Day, worldwide honouring of trees this frightening development. For instance, the problem of rapidly disappearing tropical rain forests is well known. Unfortunately, awareness of this critical situation and clear indications of the dangers ahead have not led to the slightest improvements. Now, as ever, the motto “business is business” leads to continued destruction - on a global level. Dr. Steven Best, Associate Professor of Philosophy and Humanities, University of Texas, El Paso, warns: “Everyone knows that the rainforests are disappearing, but few realize how rapidly and how their food choices play a key role. Since 1945, half of the world’s rainforests have been burned, bulldozed, and mined into oblivion. […] At the current rate of devastation, the rainforests of the world will be completely levelled in another fifty years. […] One of the principle reasons for deforestation is to provide grazing ground for cattle. […]”

However, human fascination for trees has run through history like a red thread, the most spectacular having been the sacrifice of the Bishnoi woman Amrita Devi and her 362 friends who in 1730 gave their lives to protect trees from being cut down. Much later in 1854, a certain J. Sterling Morton, lover of nature who moved with his family to Nebraska, founded “Arbor Day”: a special occasion for the planting of trees. Following the first official “Arbor Day” in 1872, more than a million trees have been planted in Nebraska, a once treeless plain, and serve as windbreaks, keep soil in place, provide fuel and building materials, and shade from the hot sun.

However, it was not before November 1951 that the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) arranged for all member nations to set aside one particular day each year to celebrate “Arbor Day”. For Germany it is April 25th: an encouragement to pay one's respect to nature and an occasion to do what everyone ought to achieve during his lifetime: to plant a tree.

But not only in America and Europe this special anniversary is celebrated. For instance in New Zealand the “Tu Kakariki” invites for this special green festival on 5 June: “Arbor Day is a reminder to all New Zealanders that we can all play a part in protecting the native forests and wildlife which are left, so our children and grandchildren will be able to experience a remnant of this country as it once was.”