Reforestation campaing in Ituri

I.  Introduction

Flevica (Fleuve d’eau vive qui coule aux autres in english River of living water flowing to others) is a non-profit association created in Bunia in the province of Ituri in 1994 in DRC with a view to contributing to the fight against poverty, to raising the standard of living of the population and to promoting its rights.It is since 1998 that FLEVICA has been operating with its own legal personality, as a non-denominational Community Development Organization. Like the water that flows through the forest and the savannah, heading towards its usual bed, FLEVICA’s activities are designed to be close to nature, taking into account the knowledge of the peasant.FLEVICA fights poverty by supporting development initiatives at the community level. Among its activities are in particular social reintegration, support for the revival of community work, the promotion of agriculture, environmental protection and food security assistance (through support for farmers’ organizations).In short, we are in the business of:Food Security (Agriculture, Aquaculture, Fisheries and Pisciculture);Governance and Gender (Protection and Human Rights);Environmental and Emergency Management (humanitarian).In DRC, the national tree day is celebrated on the 5^th December. On the 5^th December, 2022 the national tree day was celebrated under the theme “technical reforestation routes: role of the tree in the school environment”, organized by Flevica and other partners in collaboration with DRCNDF, local schools and the representatives of the national government.   

II. The consequence of deforestation in Ituri

From 2002 to 2021, Ituri lost 297kha of humid primary forests, which represents 66% of its total Tree Cover Loss during the same period.  The total area of ​​wet primary forests in Ituri decreased by 7.5% during this period.  From 2001 to 2021, Ituri lost 463kha of plant cover, which is equivalent to a decrease of 8.2% of the plant cover since 2000, and 339MT of Co₂ emissions.In Ituri, the high season of forest fires generally starts late and lasts about 14 weeks. 262 fire alerts were reported between 27th of December 2021 and 19th of December 2022, considering only trustworthy alerts. It is low compared to previous years, going up until 2012. From 2001 to 2021, Ituri lost 77ha of tree cover due to fires and 463kha due to all other loss factors. The year with the greatest loss of tree cover due to fire during this period is 2016 with 18ha of loss due to fire — 0.047% of all tree cover loss for that year.In Ituri, 120kha of land have burned so far in 2022. This total is normal compared to the total of previous years dating back to 2001. The highest number of fires recorded in a year is 2004, with 480kha.

III. The national tree day 

  On the occasion of the national tree day celebrated on December 5, 2022 under the theme “technical reforestation routes: role of the tree in the school environment”, a consortium of 25 civil society organizations in charge of environmental protection led by Flevica, organized this activity in the meeting room of the Karibuni hotel with the support of Trocaire and other partners.

The politico-administrative authorities were also present to celebrate the day. the activity of celebration of the national tree day have been organized with the participation of the students and at the end of the day each of them left with a seedling in order to go and practice reforestation. According to Mr Ukelo Jonathan the chairperson of Flevica, the great challenge of deforestation in the province of Ituri is enormous that’s why  we are commemorating this day in collaboration with educational institutions and political authorities in order popularize reforestation and to overcome this challenge of excessive deforestation in the province of Ituri. The threat is at the door as the agricultural calendar is almost disrupted and permanents floods and erosions are consequences of untimely and irrational deforestation.

IV. Advantages of reforestation

On the occasion of this national tree day, a presentation on the benefits of reforestation was made so that the participants in this activity serve as trainers for community members in reforestation.Reforestation is the best way to fight against deforestation. It consists of reviving forests that have been destroyed in the past. Reforestation is the action of planting trees with the aim of stopping deforestation. Unlike the natural regeneration of the forest which can take several years, reforestation is a boost to nature. You will see in the following the advantages that are linked to reforestation.

IV.1   Reforestation to combat the effects of climate change

It is becoming increasingly evident nowadays that climate change is largely linked to human activities. Globalization and modernization affect our environment both positively and negatively. Indeed, several toxic substances such as CO2 resulting from industrial development degrade our environment and the air we breathe. We notice that the rate of CO2 in the atmosphere today is higher than a few years ago and it continues to increase. The best solution to combat the excessive increase in CO2 levels in the environment is therefore reforestation. Indeed, thanks to the phenomenon of photosynthesis, trees store carbon dioxide and thus purify the air. Trees therefore play a decisive role in the fight to improve the climate.

IV.2 Reforestation to combat soil erosion

Soil erosion is a worrying phenomenon, as the loss of nutrients caused by runoff water makes the land arid. The erosion process is accentuated more quickly if the ground is on a slope, which can cause landslides. Plant diversity is important to nature, so it is important to mix plants according to the depth of their roots. To restore the stability of your soils, you need plants with fleshy and superficial roots. As for root crops, they make your soils more permeable and allow their reinforcement, strengthening your land. Plant rooted plants on your soil so that they can recover easily. Choose small trees that will no longer cause damage to already eroded soils. Dead leaves from trees can be used as compost and good soil for eroded soils that have been very denatured. Among these plants, we can mention the Iris germanisa which serve as stabilizers for the soil near the railway tracks. For sandy soils such as the seaside, marram grass is an essential plant.

IV.3 Reforestation to promote good rainfall

The intrinsic relationship between vegetation and cloud production has already been proven. This relationship shows that the high rates of precipitation in certain highly diversified plant environments, such as the Amazon in South America and the Congo in Africa, are linked to their very large covers. It is therefore physical mechanisms of the environment (condensation and evaporation) that involve the transport of moist air in the continent. According to the biotic bomb theory, we notice that the more an environment is populated by trees, the more it attracts rain. It can therefore be said without a doubt that reforestation is a solution to the drying up and aridity of the soil.The socio-economic benefits of reforestation Reforestation not only allows the supply of good quality wood fuels, but also fights against the progressive destruction of forests due to their overexploitation. This also positively modifies the environment and living conditions of forest artisans. The quality of wood from reforestation continues to improve, which is an advantage for industrial products. Reforestation causes the constant increase of natural economic resources and the rise of the GDP of several countries.

V. CONCLUSION

Flevica works in various fields and the protection of the environment is among its priority areas. It is for this reason that the national day of the tree in the democratic republic of Congo was celebrated in the province of ituri under the direction of flevica one of the NGOs members of the DRC NDF.The benefits of reforestation were exposed to the participants and the schoolchildren and teachers all came out with a seedling to plant to implement the lessons learned on the occasion of the International Tree Day. As deforestation in the province of Ituri is already causing harmful effects to agriculture and the environment, awareness-raising actions are to be multiplied to reduce the effects of deforestation.