FIGHT AGAINST CLIMATE CHANGE:WUM COUNCIL EMBARKS ON REFORESTATION OF HER MUNICIPAL FOREST

Reforestation is the natural or intentional restocking of existing forests  that have been depleted, usually through deforestation. Reforestation can be used to rectify or improve the quality of human life by soaking up pollution and dust from the air, rebuild natural habitats and ecosystems, mitigate global warming since forests facilitate bio sequestration of atmospheric carbon dioxide, and harvest for resources, particularly timber, but also non-timber forest products. 

Youths offloading trees in Wum Council forest

A similar concept, afforestation, another type of forestation, refers to the process of restoring and recreating areas of woodlands or forests that may have existed long ago but were deforested or otherwise removed at some point in the past or lacked it naturally (e.g., natural grasslands). Sometimes the term "re-afforestation" is used to distinguish between the original forest cover and the later re-growth of forest to an area. Special tools, e.g. tree planting bars, are used to make planting of trees easier and faster.

The goals of both afforestation and reforestation are the same: to avoid deforestation on a large scale and thus stop the large scale depletion of natural resources, preserve the smooth running of our ecosystem, and biodiversity. Reforestation and afforestation also aid in offsetting carbon emissions, the damage done to our ozone layer, and global warming. This is due to the fact that trees play a vital role in our functioning ecosystem, which includes the quality of our atmosphere.

Youths offloading trees in Wum Council forest

It is from this back drop that the Wum Council has embarked on the reforestation of her municipal forest. For this first phase of the 2018 reforestation stride, the Wum Council partnered with the Pari Mutuel Urbain Camerounais, PMUC, for the planting of five thousand trees. This partnership greatly contributed to the temporal employment of some twenty five youths within the municipality.

          Five thousand trees shall also be planted during the second phase of the reforestation of the Wum municipal forest project.