Arbor Day for Greening

Arbor Day really became a legitimate holiday to be certified and promulgated in July 1915, when the Father of the Nation, Dr. Sun Yat-sen, believed that forestry was a hundred-year plan, and when he was the Provisional President of the Republic of China, he gave special instructions to set up the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry responsible for national forestry and the Department of Forestry, and even promulgated the first Forestry Law, which advocated the planting of trees for the benefit of future generations. He also promulgated the first Forestry Law, which advocated the planting of trees for the benefit of future generations, and the government decreed that the Ching Ming Festival would be celebrated as the Tree Planting Day every year.

Later, on March 12, 1925, Dr. Sun Yat-sen passed away, and in memory of his predecessor, March 12 was designated as "Tree Planting Day" to commemorate his death. Nowadays, human beings are facing a green crisis. In addition to climate change, water scarcity, land erosion, and reduced biodiversity, the indiscriminate cutting of forests or burning of forests by fires has seriously damaged the ecological environment of the earth, posing a major existential threat to the development of human beings.

According to The State of the World's Forests 2022 (SOFO 2022), which will be released by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) at the 15th World Forestry Congree (XV WFC), the total area of the world's forests is about 4.24 billion hectares, accounting for about 31% of the world's land area between 1990 and 2020. The State of the World's Forests 2022 (SOFO 2022), released at the 15th World Forestry Congress (XV WFC) in 2022, states that the total area of forests in the world is 4.24 billion hectares, accounting for about 31% of the world's land area. However, 420 million hectares of forests have already been lost from 1990 to 2020, and the rate of forests lost is still increasing by 10 million hectares per year, which threatens the global forests and the environment. This threatens the survival of 80% of amphibians, 75% of birds, and 68% of mammals worldwide. The report also emphasizes that with the increase in global population and the rising demand for resources, the demand for timber will increase, and if timber can be produced sustainably, planting trees can indirectly contribute to the reduction of carbon emissions from construction and building.

Protecting forests for sustainable development Global deforestation is often heard of. For example, the Amazon forest, the world's largest tropical rainforest, has suffered serious deforestation and destruction by 35% due to commercial development, coupled with frequent forest fires in recent years, resulting in the extinction of more than 10,000 species of flora and fauna and aggravation of ecological crises; Indonesia is one of the world's largest producers of palm oil, and to satisfy the high demand for palm oil, a large amount of deforestation is being conducted there to develop agricultural land for palm plantations. Indonesia is one of the world's largest palm oil producers, and in order to meet the high demand for palm oil, it has cut down a large amount of forests to create agricultural land for palm planting, which not only destroys the local ecological environment, but also irreversibly affects the livelihoods and cultures of the local aboriginal people.

The seriousness and urgency of the global deforestation problem requires the global community to pay attention and make efforts, and the annual Arbor Day also highlights its significance. At present, Arbor Day has become a festival of plant care, ecological environment protection and sustainable development.

In fact, planting more trees can lower the temperature, reduce air pollution and improve the living environment, which should be actively advocated as a social trend, and many countries also carry out various tree planting, forest protection and greening activities on different dates of Arbor Day to emphasize the importance of green environmental protection. Taiwan's Arbor Day is a day that tree lovers look forward to, because under the government's promotion, relevant organizations such as the Council of Agriculture, Forestry Bureau, county and city governments have many seedling donation activities, so that the public can do their part in the greening of the earth. The global greening crisis has become a "do or die" scenario that requires the participation of the world's governments, enterprises and the public to form a consensus and take action to mitigate and resolve the threats and impacts to human existence.