Kenya Surprises Public with Holiday to Plant Trees

2023-11-09 16:25:41来源：网络

Kenya Surprises Public with Holiday to Plant Trees

肯尼亚用植树假期给公众带来惊喜

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　　By Faith Pirlo

　　08 November 2023

　　The government of Kenya says November 13th will be a public holiday for nationwide tree planting. The surprise holiday is part of a huge plan to grow 15 billion trees by 2023 to fight climate change.

　　Kithure Kindiki is the Interior Minister of the African nation. He announced the tree planting holiday via the newspaper, which was then posted to social media. The announcement came after a cabinet meeting last week and was led by President William Ruto.

　　Kindiki says that the government expects the public to plant trees as part of their, "...patriotic contribution to the national efforts to save our Country from the devastating effects of Climate Change."

　　The government has saved more than $80 million this year for the project. The goal is to increase tree cover to more than 10 percent. Right now, tree cover is only at seven percent.

　　The more tree cover, the less carbon in the air because the trees store it. Deforestation, or removing trees, speeds up climate change. It stops photosynthesis so the trees cannot take in the carbon. Deforestation often happens alongside burning, which also increases carbon dioxide.

　　Extreme weather events are worsening because of climate change in the Horn of Africa, which includes Kenya. There, rains have failed the past five seasons, though Kenya is currently experiencing heavy rains and flooding because of the El Nino weather event.

　　The Kenyan Environment Ministry said it would supply tree seedlings to citizens to stand for the government's commitment on climate action.

　　Soipan Tuya is the Environment Minister. She said, "It is a moment for Kenyans to stand in solidarity in the defense of our environment." She referred to the day as "a 'hummingbird' contribution day."

　　Hummingbirds are small birds, but they play an important part in the environment by pollinating flowers. The saying means that it seems like a small contribution, but if everyone does it together, the results will be impactful.

　　Since becoming president in September of 2022, President Ruto has made the National Landscape and Ecosystem Restoration Program a top consideration.

　　Kenya is part of the British Commonwealth. King Charles III praised the efforts last week on his first visit to an African nation since becoming King last year.

　　King Charles said at a state dinner, "Having been planting trees for most of my life, I thought I was doing rather well, but your ambition for planting 15 billion trees makes me admire your efforts."

　　During his visit, Charles planted a tree at the State House in the capital city of Nairobi. He also planted one in the Karura forest. The forest is associated with Wangari Maathai, the late environmentalist and Nobel prize winner who made the Green Belt Movement, which was the original tree planting effort in Kenya in the 1970s.

　　I'm Faith Pirlo.

　　Emmanuel Igunza reported this story for the Associated Press. Faith Pirlo adapted it for VOA Learning English.

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　　费思·皮尔洛

　　2023年11月8日

　　肯尼亚政府表示，11月13日将成为全国植树的公共假日。这个惊喜假期是到2023年种植150亿棵树以应对气候变化的庞大计划的一部分。

　　Kithure Kindiki是这个非洲国家的内政部长。他通过报纸宣布了植树节，然后发布到社交媒体上。这项声明是在上周由总统威廉·鲁托主持的内阁会议后宣布的。

　　金迪基说，政府希望公众植树作为他们的一部分...爱国主义的贡献，以国家的努力，拯救我们的国家从毁灭性的气候变化的影响。"

　　政府今年已经为该项目节省了8000多万美元。目标是将森林覆盖率提高到10%以上。现在，森林覆盖率只有7%。

　　树木覆盖越多，空气中的碳就越少，因为树木储存了碳。砍伐森林或移除树木会加速气候变化。它停止了光合作用所以树木无法吸收碳。砍伐森林通常伴随着燃烧，这也增加了二氧化碳。

　　由于包括肯尼亚在内的非洲之角的气候变化，极端天气事件正在恶化。在那里，过去五个季节都没有降雨，尽管由于厄尔尼诺天气事件，肯尼亚目前正经历暴雨和洪水。

　　肯尼亚环境部表示，将向公民提供树苗，以体现政府对气候行动的承诺。