Trees are cut everywhere, no one plants new ones!
Today I forward to you a distress call from a friend of SEDELAN, who has been living in Burkina for many years. Will her call be heeded?
“The other day as I returned from Ouaga, I came upon aterrible scene!I am a great lover of nature. Seeing the “corpses” of felled caïlcedrat trees (Khaya Senegalensis* N.d.trad.) lining the road from Dédougou to Koudougou, breaks my heart.
This particular day it was even worse. I actually saw the logging machine cut these magnificent trees. Before my eyes the operator dug out the ground around the trunk of a splendid tree that was certainly over a hundred years old. The big caïlcédrat, still standing, let the wind caress its leaves, as if to say goodbye to the village that had seen it grow, the machine made a cut, pushed the tree and it was all over. It silently fell to the ground.
These pictures were taken on March 22nd, a few days after “The day of the Tree”.
Isn’t it absurd?
Splendid centenary caïlcédrat trees, which never shed their leaves and have a bark valued for its medicinal properties, used to shade the route from Koudougou to Dédougou. What is left?
Who will replace them? A simple rule should be adopted: Whoever (person or company) decides to cut a tree should plant two new ones and see to it that they survive!
If a company must fell two hundred caïlcédrats to enlarge the road, it should plant 400 new ones and look after them for at least 3 years.
If not, Burkina will become a desert!
At our place, La Colline, and all around Dédougou, everyone cuts and nobody plants! A few years ago there were trees here.
The loggers came around and this is the result!
And that is not all. In mid-February in the Mouhoun area people go out wearing masks, to “call for rain”. In order to do this they have to an make a costume of leaves, which must be replaced with fresh ones every day for two weeks. Thus the trees are deprived of their perennial leaves, their death warrant is signed. What the villagers really do is calling not for rain but for the desert! It is coming to them in great strides!
Who thinks about planting new trees?
Tomorrow there will be nothing left for our children! They will be living in a desert.
They will be thirsty people will talk about drought and say “This is God’s will”.
If you and I decide to plant a tree each year and take responsibility for its care, our land and our homes would have a better habitat or micro-climate: We would suffer less from the heat and rains would be abundant.
If you and I engage our children and our neighbours in a reforestation campaign, Burkina Faso would turn into one large forest. Go ahead!
Plant your tree … and the planet will thank you.
« Plante ton arbre... et le Burkina te dit merci ! »
Failing this, this is what our country will look like.
Dédougou, April 15th 2011
Silvana Pala
