Standing up
for Trees
All around the World, there are people standing up for trees. Let's fly across the globe and learn about 3 stories when people stood up to protect the trees in their community.
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The Cultural Importance of Trees: Trees and Community
Djab warrung country is situated in central Victoria, Australia.
Numerous trees which are considered sacred and hold huge cultural importance to the community are being threatened with removal due to roadwork plans running through the area.
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Two of these trees, known as 'Birthing Trees', are believed to be over 800 years old and, for approximately 50 generations, women of the community have given birth under the trees.
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A spokesperson from the community explained that each tree could be thought of like a 'church' for their people; it is where they connect with each other and their ancestors. It is believed that the tree itself is part of the community and the community's ancestry, holding much knowledge.
Story 1: Djab warrung, Australia
Djab wurrung country is the territory of land belonging to the Djab warrung aboriginal people
The people of Djab wurrung stood up to protect the trees by forming a group, called the Djab warrung Heritage Protection Embassy. Alongside other people showing support, they are standing up to protect their sacred trees from destruction.
Nature and Cultural Beliefs
Let's look at some of the cultural beliefs and philosophies which are connected with plants and nature around the world...
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​"Taoism" = 'life force' or energy is always present and existing everywhere. This energy is always seeking balance and harmony.
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"Pachamama" = encompasses the idea of Mother Earth, cosmos and the universe. The idea that all living things are connected and all time is connected.
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"Animism" = the belief that everything, including people, animals, plants, places, rocks, rivers and more, are infused with 'living spirit' or a 'soul'.
The resurgent indigenous belief of Pachamama has been a driver of recent environmental laws in Bolivia and Ecuador - granting all nature, such as their tropical rainforests, as having equal rights to humans!
Story 2: Sheffield Tree Protectors
It's not just in rural areas that people stand up for trees, they are just as important in cities too!
In the city of Sheffield in the UK, residents stood up to protect their city's beloved urban trees when a plan to cut down around 17,500 trees came into the spotlight.
Sometimes a tree has to be cut down when it becomes unhealthy and in danger of falling down, or where the roots of the tree begin to cause damage to pavement for example. However, there was much dispute around whether every tree targeted with removal was actually in poor health, and whether it was really necessary to cut down so many trees.
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Sheffield has been long known as "Europe's Greenest City", which is in part due to the large leafy giants that line the roads and footpaths of Sheffield.
The people of Sheffield have grown up alongside these trees, and took pride in the nature that for so long had been characteristic of the city they called 'home'.
The story began in 2014 with the felling of a 450-year-old oak tree, despite local people requesting reconsideration and proving the good health of the tree. Residents had some success though, protecting 189 other trees from being chopped down to make way for a bus lane.
"Save Our Roadside Trees" campaign
In 2015, the people of Sheffield decided to form a group which became known as the:
...which was then followed by the formation of the:
"Sheffield Tree Action Groups"
Over the next few years, the disputes continued...
People formed barriers by standing around the trees when approached by felling machinery, quite literally standing up to protect their treasured trees.
A number of trees were lost to the felling, including a pair of two memorial cherry trees commemorating those lost in WWII.
The community did also manage to save a large number of trees however...
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One big triumph for the community was saving the 120-year-old Chelsea Road Elm tree, which was home to a colony of a rare species of white-letter hairstreak butterflies.
This story is looking to finally come to an end in 2021, with a deal between the tree protectors of the community and the city council, which both can agree on.
The story of the Sheffield tree protectors is an important tale to tell, showing that even in cities, trees can be an important part of a community and what makes a place feel like home.
Story 3: Wangari Maathai and the Green Belt Movement in Kenya
Wangari Maathai was a Kenyan/Kikuyu environmentalist.
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Wangari began to notice trees being cut down, both in her own and neighbouring communities. The diversity of wild trees were being replaced with commercial plantations.
As a result, some problems began to emerge...
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The biodiversity of animals and other forms of life were starting to vanish.
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Soil erosion (depletion of the upper layer of soil) and landslides (movement of earth down slopes) were becoming more frequent.
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Water sources were drying up, meaning that clean drinking water was becoming less available.
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Malnutrition was increasing. Due to the lack of good firewood, families were being forced to swap the higher quality meals that required more heat and time to cook, for lower quality meals.
Rural Kenyan women of these communities had brought some of these issues to attention. Wangari wanted to find a way to solve these issues, and she began to connect the dots... She soon realised a solution - let's plant trees!
Thus commenced the Green Belt Movement!
Founded by Wangari in 1977, herself and her team began to encourage women to work together to cultivate seedlings of the trees that had been cut down to reclaim and restore the land, whilst also solving the issues that were effecting their everyday lives.
What began as small groups of women planting trees soon became larger groups of people. In Kenya, over 51 million trees have been planted through the Green Belt Movement!
Through her work, Wangari became the first African woman and environmentalist to win the Nobel Prize in 2004!
References:
Kwai, I. (2019) 'This Land Is a Sanctuary for Aboriginal Women. Bulldozers May Soon Come.', The New York Times, 14 August. Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/14/world/australia/djab-wurrung-trees.html (Accessed: 25 November 2020).
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Martin, L. (2019) 'Protesters defend sacred 800-year-old Djap Wurrung trees as police deadline looms', The Guardian, 22 August. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/aug/22/protesters-defend-sacred-800-year-old-djap-wurrung-trees-as-police-deadline-looms (Accessed: 25 November 2020).
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Drury, C. (2018) 'Sheffield's tree massacre: How locals battled to protect Europe's greenest city' The Independent, 18 April. Available at: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/long_reads/sheffield-tree-massacre-parks-green-city-spaces-felling-street-council-yorkshire-a8286581.html (Accessed: 25 November 2020).
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The Green Belt Movement. (2020) The Green Belt Movement. Available at: https://www.greenbeltmovement.org/who-we-are/our-history (Accessed: 25 November 2020).