Part 7: GOVERNMENT POLICIES

In our last chapter we looked at policies an individual could take to combat deforestation. In this chapter we will look at 5 major ways a country's government can help in reforestation.

1. Educate

• Education and raising awareness is the key and the most important method a government can use to reduce deforestation. If people don't know the drastic effects deforestation is causing to our environment then they will never make an effort to reduce it. 
• School-based reforestation initiatives are an important way for students, teachers, and communities to make tangible contributions to climate change mitigation efforts. This education should start pretty early. It should be taught in elementary schools that we need our forests to survive. 

"Education is a critical step to safeguard natural resources for future generations. It is essential for children to learn about forests at an early age." Jose Graziano da Silva, Director-General, FAO. 

2. Restore

• Reforestation can be defined as the restoration of existing forests and woodlands that have been depleted, afforestation refers to the planting of trees in ares where there has been no tree cover before. Thus, either through reforestation or afforestation another measure to meet the deforestation problem is to plant new trees.

3. Encourage

• Encouraging people to live in a way that doesn't hurt the environment by reducing less paper,  avoiding single-use packaging, eating sustainable food and choosing recycled or responsibly-produced wood products. 

4. Establish

• Creating protected areas like national parks is a great way to save rainforests and other ecosystems. Protected areas are locations preserved because of their environmental or  cultural value.
• Such protected areas are established and managed by governments and use park rangers and guards to enforce the rules of the park and protect against illegal activities like hunting, mining and cutting down of trees. 

5. Support

• Government can support companies such as L'Oreal and Unilever that operate in ways that minimize damage to the environment. 
• Also supporting NGOs such as Amazon Watch and Rainforest Trust fighting deforestation. 

In conclusion, governments work with  organizations to reduce deforestation, educating people and buying tracts of land to preserve and/or replant and also working with the people to create new jobs. 

They can also make a huge difference by focusing on policies which eliminate corruption in the country. 

"If corruption is a disease, transparency is essential part of its treatment." - Kofi Annan