The Sunday Mail
Ibo Foroma Rastafarian Perspectives
“THE planet is in peril,” a song by Sizzla Kalonji describes how in the name of “development,” human activity is destroying the environment, flora and fauna.
ln order to reverse this damage, let’s all join hands. Finally and at last, the rainy season is here. Thank JAH the first Saturday of December is officially National Tree Planting Day. The idea alone is exciting. No doubt everyone is anxious to play their part diligently.
Rastafarians place unimaginable importance on conservation of the environment and its inhabitants whose life, like ours, is priceless and must be defended at all costs.
Trees comprise the backbone of life on earth. They provide animals with all their food and energy, shelter and substitute-free oxygen. Unlike animals, plants produce their own energy through using photons from the sun, our nearest star, and this process is called photosynthesis.
Under normal circumstances, Rastafarians are vegans hence they derive all their energy and nutritional requirements from plants and vegetables. The idea is not to waste energy and innocent life consequently.
As presented here, the term deforestation must be taken to mean the slow but sure destruction of the planet perpetuated by man(kind), arguably “the planet’s wisest species.”
The following speech by Emperor Haile Selassie I commands Rastafarians to take action with immediate effect.
“It is a matter of great concern for us that the forest wealth which God in His mercy has bestowed upon our country is thus being continually reduced and wasted.
Hence it becomes the duty and obligation of every single Ethiopian to become aware of the tremendous industrial and agricultural advantages to be derived from our forest resources, and to practise tree-planting, in order that our hills and planes which have been stripped of their wooded cover may once again be clothed in their green mantle.
“The existence or non-existence of forest wealth in a country is one of the most important factors influencing its development and progress.
The increasing pace of de-forestation and the growing dearth of timber in Ethiopia, caused by unregulated tree-cutting and the failure to replace these by new plantings, give us occasion for anxiety that a severe economic problem will confront the coming generation.
It is essential that steps be taken here and now to stop this wastage and to check this destruction.
“In these days when all nations of the world, in recognition of the tremendous importance of forest wealth, have launched intensive programmes for forest conservation and re-forestation, it behoves our country also to take the appropriate measures to solve this problem.
“It is our wish and our desire that each and every citizen of our country follow the example we set on this Arbour Day in planting this tree, and himself plant as many trees as he can, for his own benefit as well as for the benefit of future generations,” (Selassie I:July 19;1958.)
Facts on deforestation
Forests cover 30 percent of the earth’s land.
The paper industry is fourth largest in producing greenhouse gas thereby majorly contributing to deforestation.
The total world forest loss to date is 7,3 million hectares per year. Zimbabwe is 39 million hectares in total.
Fuel wood in sub-Saharan African countries is consumed up to 200 percent times more than the annual growth rates of the trees. This is causing deforestation, lack of timber resources and loss of habitat for the species living in it.
Soil erosion, floods, wildlife extinction, increase in global warming, and climate imbalance are few of the effects of deforestation.
Sources
51 Facts About Deforestation www.conserve-energy-future.com/vari
Selected Speeches of His Imperial Majesty Haile Selassie I 1918–1967.
Electronically digitized edition published for The Worldwide Rastafari Community by Mama Berhane (Dorothy Allen), Amaha Selassie, and Sistren Sharifah. Pennsylvania and Ohio, U.S.A.
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