It has deep roots

Recently, my brother Steve told me that he had become Chair of the Trustees of the International Tree Foundation. This was a complete surprise to me, as I know some of the things to which my brother gives his time, but I was unaware of this one! The origins of the International Tree Foundation are interesting, but more of that later.

People love trees. They provide us with so much – such as fruit, shade and timber -  and they are fascinating to watch through the changing seasons. There are tens of thousands of species of tree, and the exact number of species has still not been established! Trees, the largest plants above ground, form a crucial part of many different ecosystems. We often read, for example, that the “English” oak tree supports around 800 different species of living creature, many of which are insects. These insects, in turn, are part of the food chain for many species of bird. Another important function of trees is that they take in carbon dioxide, and give out oxygen. This makes it essential that we ensure that there are always a large number of trees on the planet, because animals and people have the opposite effect: we breathe in oxygen, but breathe out carbon dioxide. So trees provide us with what we need to breathe and at the same time they reduce the amounts of one of the most important greenhouse gases, thereby helping to reduce the threat of climate change!

Trees are also a factor in the natural water cycle. When clouds pass over the forests, the trees below cause a drop in the air temperature, reducing the temperature in the clouds, and thereby encouraging the clouds to drop rain. Take away those forests, as in coastal California, and you get drier conditions and the likelihood of wildfires. Furthermore, a tree root system is huge, so during periods of rainfall, it helps to hold the soil together. These underground systems therefore take a good proportion of the rain which falls, and help to hold the water in the ground. Removing the trees from upland areas can create the conditions for flooding downstream. This happens in many parts of the world, and a particularly striking example is Bangladesh. Most of the country is a floodplain, and deforestation of the lower slopes of the Himalayas means that during the monsoon, vast quantities of water run straight off the mountains and onto the plains of Bangladesh, causing flooding and immense suffering.

Our souls – or something basic inside us – respond with pleasure to the colour green, which means we have a positive emotional response to woodland. This is presumably because during our development as a species, wandering across the land and sailing across the sea, the sight of an expanse of green meant the possibility of food to us. An expanse of sand, rock or ice does not provoke the same kind of feeling. People can settle, finding or growing food, where the soil is fertile. So we depend on the plant world – the world of nature. According to Bahá’u’lláh: “Nature is God’s Will and is its expression in and through the contingent world.” Man, who consumes plants and animals, cannot destroy nature completely, as he would die in the process: “All praise be to God Who hath adorned the world with an ornament, and arrayed it with a vesture, of which it can be despoiled by no earthly power, however mighty its battalions, however vast its wealth, however profound its influence.” Nature will always grow back eventually.

As previously mentioned, the origins of the International Tree Foundation are interesting. An Englishman called Richard St Barbe Baker worked as a logger in Canada just before the First World War. He became convinced that European settlers were causing soil loss through the way that they stripped the countryside of the diverse vegetation to create farms, by cutting down the forest trees without planting replacements. He came back to England to study biology and botany, and then went to Kenya, where he worked with the Kikuyu people to begin reforestation in that country. Together with Chief Njonjo, he founded an organisation called “Watu wa Miti”, meaning “People of the Trees”.

Whilst back in England, where he gave a talk at a “Congress of Living Religions” in 1924, he was told about the Bahá’í Faith, and became a Bahá’í. The Bahá’í ideals of uniting the planet and seeing all human beings as one family chimed in completely with what he was trying to do for the world. Later, while working on reforestation in Palestine, with the help of people from all the main religions there, he met Shoghi Effendi, who was the Guardian of the Bahá’í Faith. Shoghi Effendi became one of the first life members of the “Men of the Trees”.  “Men of the Trees” was international in its scope, and eventually became known as the “International Tree Foundation”. Chapters (they could hardly call them branches!) were established in over a hundred countries, and it has been estimated that this organisation and others assisted by Richard St Barbe Baker have been responsible for planting around 26 billion trees! Richard St Barbe Baker himself died in Saskatoon, Canada, in 1982.

The International Tree Foundation (I.T.F.) is now based in Oxford (England), and promotes forestry initiatives worldwide. This involves not just re-planting forests, but ensuring that these forests meet the needs of the communities which live in and near them. Forests, if properly managed, can provide sustainable levels of fuel, food and medicine. A great part of the I.T.F.’s work is assisting local organisations which promote forestry, in whichever country they may be. There are over a hundred of these organisations which are helped by I.T.F.

Richard St Barbe Baker’s vision lives on, and the organisation he founded back in 1922 is actively promoting forests which help the planet, the soil, the human communities and the wildlife. One of the most heart-warming parts of this story is that one of Richard St Barbe Baker’s ideas – the planting of a wall of trees across the southern end of the Sahara Desert – is now being put into practice. Under the auspices of the African Union, eleven African countries have begun planting “The Great Green Wall”. Other countries are assisting, and perhaps thirty million trees may have been planted so far. Although a number of problems remain – getting water to the young trees is a big challenge – Richard St Barbe Baker’s vision is alive and guiding us today! Mankind’s love of trees has deep roots.

(If you are interested in, or would like to support, the International Tree Foundation, the website is:
http://www.internationaltreefoundation.org )

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