2017-03-21 Tue

“Nature is a temple in which living columns sometimes emit confused words. Man approaches it through forests of symbols, which observe him with familiar glances”. -Charles Baudelaire. Forests, our main source to breathe…a source that provides all living beings with our basic needs of food, clothing and shelter faces now a threat by none other than the human being themselves. We are making animals homeless and creating a cyclone of hunger and despair for us. Today, March 21st, has been celebrated as International Day of Forests since 2013; yet how many of us are celebrating this day?

About one third land mass of the world is covered in forests. Besides fulfilling our basic needs they also maintain the balance of oxygen, carbon dioxide and humidity in the air, protect watersheds that supply fresh water to rivers, etc.

The United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution in 28th November 2012 to celebrate 21st March as International Day of Forests. Each year, various events celebrate and raise awareness of the importance of all types of forests, and trees outside forests, for the benefit of current and future generations. Countries are encouraged to take efforts and organize events like tree plantation walk, etc. The Secretariat of the UN Forum on Forests, in collaboration with the Food and Agriculture Organization facilitates the implementation of such events in collaboration with governments, the Collaborative Partnership on Forests, and international, regional and sub-regional organizations.

Each year a new theme is selected for the event and the theme for 2017 is ‘forests and energy’. Hope to see you plant a new tree or at least raise awareness about it in your locality today. Long live forests!

Post Serbia issued this 66 Serbian Dinar commemorative stamp on forests on 15th May 2011. United Nations had released a beautiful video in hope to raise awareness about this topic.