What to do to protect nature?
- October 10, 2023
- , 5:54 pm
- , Natura e scienza, Sostenibilità
What can we do to protect nature? What are the most important resources on which biodiversity and our very existence depend? Why is it important to take care of forests?
Reducing environmental impacts is the first step
There are many things each of us can do to protect nature. Certainly reducing our impacts, such as carbon dioxide emissions, is one of the first steps each of us should take to mitigate the effects of the climate crisis and the loss of biodiversity. But it is not enough!
In addition to changing our consumer lifestyles, we must also take active steps to protect the natural resources we depend on, such as forests.
But why do our lives depend on forests?
Forests are essential. They produce oxygen, absorb carbon dioxide, provide habitats for much of the earth’s biodiversity, purify water, and provide direct and indirect benefits. That is why it is essential to take care of them.
Do not confuse trees with a forest!
A forest is an ecosystem formed by a community of organisms and the physical environment in which they live. Over the centuries of millennia, these organisms tend to find their dynamic equilibrium. The forest is self-regulating, reacting to changes until it returns to a new equilibrium point. That is why in the United States when you want to tell someone who is very focused on details not to miss the big picture, you say don’t miss the forest for the trees. So don’t confuse the trees with the forest. A saying, therefore, that reminds us how important it is to understand that there is more behind the forest than just a group of trees.
Why is it important to protect forests? Isn’t it simpler to plant new trees?
The answer is much, much simpler there is no comparison. Protecting and preserving existing nature is much easier, faster, and cheaper than destroying nature and then trying to rebuild it. Just think how many years, decades, perhaps centuries will have to pass before these small trees become a mature, complex forest with all the balances and functioning typical of its ecosystem. Moreover, it is not always possible to recreate what has been destroyed.
So how do you protect a forest?
With WOWnature you can take care of an existing forest by supporting responsible and sustainable management activities.
Protecting a forest means first and foremost supporting those who are actively and responsibly managing it, balancing human needs with the need to safeguard the ecological processes, functioning, and balances of the forest itself.
What about the loss of biodiversity?
One of how we intervene to preserve biodiversity is by creating or restoring specific environments within the forests themselves, to allow certain species that may be extremely important for the functioning of the ecosystem to thrive, for example by creating small ponds for amphibians, many species of which are at risk of extinction, or by placing bat boxes, or even by creating small clearings where grouse can perform their courtship and mating dances. Or in other contexts, we intervene by limiting the presence of invasive exotic species, i.e. those species taken by man and moved outside their area of origin, which then tend to compete with native species.
Protect a forest with WOWnature
Protecting forests is not only an act of responsibility but a necessity for our very existence. Each of us can contribute by adopting conscious behavior and supporting actions to conserve natural resources.
