Be the change that you wish to see in the world

“The campaign centres on daily news articles and a Facebook campaign to encourage planting trees, composting and mulching as carbon offsetting actions. We have received emails and messages of support but we still want to see action. That’s why I planted my tree”

I planted my first tree this week.

This doesn’t sound like earth-shattering news. But then again, maybe it is.

This tree I planted – a Tahitian Lime bought from a farmer in Faleula – is the first of many trees I intend to plant to help offset carbon emissions from the Third International Conference on Small Island Developing States (S.I.D.S).

To be honest I have never really planted anything before, save a couple of ginger plants that my husband moved days after to save them from perishing.

But this week, it felt good to break the soil and dig down – something reminiscent of a childhood memory of playing in the vegetable garden.

Of course for most people in Samoa, planting trees is nothing new.

It has been a practice passed down the generations.

And, the birds seem to do a pretty good job helping spreading seeds around to account for pawpaw trees sprouting up randomly.

But the practice has, of late, needed a boost to replenish the plantings of our grandfathers.

The Government of Samoa has been running its agro-forestry stimulus package to kickstart the massive replanting of coconut, cocoa and coffee for several years.

Here, at Women in Business Development Inc we have had an internal replanting programme operating for about the last ten years.

The focus has mainly been on coconut trees to replace the senile, 60-years plus trees that are no longer good for coconut production. Our farmer’s have also been planting cocoa, fetau, coffee and misiluki.

Now with the SIDS conference on the horizon, there is another to reason to plant trees. Around 3,000 people are predicted to arrive in Samoa.

If we took the example of 3,000 flights from Los Angeles (balancing out that some will come from closer and also further airports), then about 11,000 tonnes of carbon emissions will be generated.

Trees remove and store carbon dioxide from the atmosphere as they grow. One tree can in its lifetime store one tonne of carbon. They also provide a habitat for living creatures and are capable of producing food for many years.

Trees also prevent soil erosion. Samoa’s fetau tree has a deep-root system that helps our beaches stay intact. This particular tree also produces a nut that yields a healing oil for skin ailments.

Last Sunday, we started the Offset ISLAND 2014 awareness and social media campaign. The campaign centres on daily news articles and a Facebook campaign to encourage planting trees, composting and mulching as carbon offsetting actions. We have received emails and messages of support but we still want to see action. That’s why I planted my tree.

I figure I cannot just raise awareness, I have to do something.

I have to intervene, take action and as Mahatma Ghandi said: “Be the change that you wish to see in the world.”

I know that right now our campaign is small but I have faith in my friends, colleagues and humankind. I also have faith in the Lord to keep going because as we all know: Through Him all things are possible.

As a citizen of a small island developing state, I know only too well that this whole carbon emissions and climate change mess has come from developed nations.

But knowing this will not change that it is happening and the effects are most felt in island nations such as Samoa, making our islands and way of life vulnerable. We are already seeing neighbouring islands such as Tuvalu and Kiribati receiving the brunt of the rising sea levels and salt-water intrusion ruining crops and domestic dwellings. For them the impacts of climate change is literally at their doorstep.

Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sa’ilele Malielegaoi signalled in April that he was after and agreement from developed nations, as a result of the SIDS meeting, to extend the Kyoto protocol. He would like to see an agreement to limit greenhouse gas emissions and a framework that would set how this will be done.

I trust that our island leaders will do the best they can to secure a safe and prosperous future for our planet and people.

Theirs is a tough battle with our regional ally Australia taking a blinkered approach to climate change.

Luckily the United States, through President Barack Obama and State Secretary John Kerry, have been very vocal about the need to tackle the issue of climate change with policy and practical programmes.

One of their initiatives has been the setting up on agricultural regional climate hubs, where farmers and forest landowners can get information to help them adapt to climate change and weather variability.

S.I.D.S is just one global meeting happening around the world. But it is here in Samoa, in my homeland and heartland, and I know that I have, we all have, a role to play to make sure that this meeting does not add to the damage that humankind has already inflicted on our precious earth.

In Samoa, our way of life is blessed by our fertile soils and warm climate. We need to give back that blessing.

Plant, compost, mulch – Be the change that you wish to see in the world.