My Personal Experience on SDG 15: Life on Land

Muhammad Miftah Baihaqi bin Muhamad Safri 
2417253 

Nature is so fine and important for all, but human activities of cutting down trees and littering the land are destroying it. Recently, I joined the tree-planting event to restore a damaged forest area. This just gave me a little understanding of SDG 15: Life on Land, which dwells on protecting and taking care of the Earth's nature.

    When I signed up for the event, I thought it would be a simple and fun activity, like just planting trees and going home. However, I knew helping the environment isn't always easy. I worried if planting a few trees would make a difference. So, I read about how trees help the planet by cleaning the air, preventing floods, and giving homes to animals. But there's still a slight detachment from the problem. I couldn't feel the facts as I had not experienced the real-world effects of failing ecosystems.

   Upon making my way to the site, it was unfortunate to find how poor the site actually looked, it had  no trees, dead ground, and too much dryness. It was obvious to see damage that had been done to the land by cutting trees. Most precious little work was done to put saplings in now that it was going to be much harder than I had anticipated, but at least it's done. It took some time, but I came to appreciate how each living tree that we would plant would symbolise something alive in that kind of place. Then, he described how trees help animals with shelter and even reduce the greenhouse gas footprint by absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. The thing that mostly surprised me was learning how everything in nature is connected. Indeed, trees act as life gear for insects, birds, and even humans by generating food, places for shelter, and cleanliness; they mainly focus on fresh air and dirtless environments. Now I feel proud to say that I contributed something very meaningful, and it comes back to me when I think of it.

    I came to understand that in actual fact, even very small actions like planting trees really go a long way if joined up with a large number of other people. If I had to do it all over again, I would invite more friends and family. I suppose teaching kids about planting trees would also enable them to become conservationists as adults. I also found out that it is not enough to just plant trees; forest protection entails nurturing them to healthy maturity. This has helped me to think about some modifications in my life to be more sustainable, such as being less dependent on paper or buying more ecological products.