DEAR EDITOR, as the Solomon Islands has lost so much of its indigenous forests over the years due to logging practices, I highly commend the Malaita Provincial Forestry Unit in again initiating a school re-forestation programme for secondary schools in the province.
The programme is aimed at getting school children to become aware of the importance of reforestation and planting trees and to teach the younger generation of the importance of forests and especially its management.
Ecosystem restoration is the process of actively managing the recovery of an ecosystem that has been degraded, damaged or destroyed.
I believe that such a school-led conscious intervention based on traditional local knowledge and forestry understanding is the goal the Solomon Islands greatly needs to restore the country’s ecosystems to be resilient and self-sustaining.
It is my hope that similar re-forestation programmes will be introduced at all local secondary schools and perhaps supported by the help of the Taiwanese Government through its Embassy in Honiara.
Yours sincerely
FRANK SHORT
