Celebrating ‘forests and biodiversity’ today

March 21, 2020

Yosemite and Giant Sequoia National Park, circa May 2015 ©Rohith Roy

Approx. 6 mins read <650 words

The context:

This post is to celebrate International Day of Forests, which is today on March 21. The United Nations General Assembly proclaimed 21 March the International Day of Forests in 2012. I was there on that day when it happened at the UN HQs in NYC. This is the reason why I feel motivated to write a post on the importance of forests in our lives year after year.

This year’s theme is ‘Forests and Biodiversity’. So why do we need to celebrate forests ahead of world water day, which is tomorrow? Here are some quick facts according to UN-FAO’s website:

Forests are home to about 80% of the world’s terrestrial biodiversity.
Forests and woodlands are made up of over 60,000 tree species.
More than a billion people depend directly on forests for food, shelter, energy and income.
Deforestation continues at an alarming rate – 13 million hectares of forest are destroyed annually and this accounts for 12 to 20 percent of the global greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change.

All the water on planet earth today, whether in the oceans or seas (saltwater) or in our rivers, lakes, ponds (freshwater) is the same water that has been there since the beginning of time. Nature’s own filters, trees, have been doing this work silently for millions of years through a process called hydrological cycle aka as the water cycle.

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Across the world, communities have planted and protected trees for ages, to support themselves and the fragile ecosystems, in which they dwell.

Personal context:

Regular readers of this blog might have come across my past posts on the joys of growing up in a household in India, with a guava tree in the courtyard, and a mulberry tree at the entrance of that home. I also have my fondest memories of encountering some of the most interesting biodiversity, from a caterpillar to green parrots, while playing in those trees all summer long. I used to make sure to pick up only those guavas that the parrots and sparrows have tasted and approved back then. Looking back I feel so fortunate to have experienced that childhood and believe that it sparked the desire to learn more about these amazing trees and life that they support, eventually leading me to on to a lifelong path of learning about science, environment, water and global development.

Urban forest in winter circa Jan. 2020 ©Pallavi Bharadwaj

I’ve been extremely fortunate to have the opportunity to have lived, worked and traveled to some of the most forested regions of the world. They range from the foothills of the Himalays in northern Indian states of Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand (Raja Ji National Park, Sanjay Van), Punjab and Himachal Pradesh, and Aravalis in Haryana and Rajasthan, to Yosemite National Park in the US.

We try to inculcate the knowledge and importance of forests and biodiversity in our toddler, despite him being born and now growing up in mainly urban environs.

In conclusion:

Next time when you turn on the tap to fill a glass of water, open a packet to take a medication, write something on paper or buy a wooden furniture to build or decorate your home, just think of all the invisible ways in which the forests help us and touch our lives, and in what visible or invisible ways we can help the forests and biodiversity globally. In India vanaprastha (forest bound) means “one who gives up worldly life”. It is also a concept in Hindu traditions, representing the third of four ashrama (stages) of human life, the other three being (Brahmacharya, Grihastha and Sannyasa). I leave you with this video on the Japanese concept that they practice called forest bathing, or shinrin-yoku. Shinrin in Japanese means “forest,” and yoku means “bath.

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