Arbor Day: alert for human survival

Eternal reminder of the essential source of life on the planet and the existence, until now, of homo predatorius, ‘Arbor Day’, celebrated this September 21st, not coincidentally, together with the entry of the Spring reinforces the need to preserve the environment and sustainable use of resources natural.

In addition to the ecological balance, the fauna and flora that sustain us, trees also contribute, through the vegetation cover they form, as vectors of climatic balance, increasingly threatened by the consumerist voracity of the human race, not to mention nuclear or oil experiments that crack the Earth's crust, directly responsible for growing catastrophes and uncontrollable.

Among the benefits provided by trees, Cecilia Herzog, a member of the Network of Nature Conservation Specialists (RECN), an initiative financed by Fundação Grupo Boticário, highlights:

• Climate balance;
• Production of oxygen from the photosynthesis process;
• Life maintenance;
• They act on the water cycle;
• Prevent floods and landslides;
• Reduce heat islands in cities.

In addition to their effective contributions to the maintenance of life on Earth, trees also have economic applications, ranging from the production of furniture, housing construction, as well as the manufacture of paper, derived from cellulose, and the use of chemical substances extracted from it by industry pharmaceutical. Not to mention fruit production, a fundamental food source for the survival of civilization.

Supporting a systemic view of trees, Cecilia emphasizes that they are an essential part of an ecosystem, which is characterized by interconnection of different elements, giving as an example the fact that some species use their structure to protect themselves from predators.

The uncontrolled exploitation of nature, continues the Boticário Group specialist, brings as consequence, in the country, for example, the advancement of the desertification process in the Southeast region and the savanna in the Amazon.

As an attempt to recover ecosystems affected by deforestation or forest fires, Cecilia points to reforestation, which can be made possible by planting combined with food production, which allows the development of syntropic agriculture, which consists of a system of agroforestry cultivation for rapid recovery of degraded soils, as long as factors such as: altitude, climate and environment (urban or rural).