Arusha — Friday, March 12 saw the Director of Green Foundation Trust, Ms. Gladness Pallangyo lead a couple of tourists in a tree planting exercise at Tengeru health centre, about 12 kms out of Arusha town.

The exercise marked an important milestone for the community at the health centre and residents, demonstrating that locals are becoming more aware of the benefits of trees to the upkeep of environment.

A total of about 300 trees have already been planted around the Tengeru health centre giving the centre and its surrounding areas a cool beauty. The land around Tengeru is densely populated and for most people, the surrounding vegetation is a source of livelihood.

Through the Green Foundation Trust and Tengeru Cultural Tourism Programme initiatives over 5,000 trees have been planted in the last three years in and around Arusha.

After visiting Kenya and Zanzibar, two French tourists [Cecile Laclautre and Yohann Coulon], who came through the prior arrangement from Tanzania Tourist Board in Arusha and Tengeru Cultural Tourism Programme, decided to take a break from their workstation in Spain to visit Africa.

Earlier in the day the guide from Green Foundation Trust Mr. Noel Akyoo took the tourists through villages up to a nearby Mavinuni primary school, where the tourists had wished to talk to the students. To help the school with over 600 students, Tengeru Cultural Tourism Programme of which Ms. Gladness Pallangyo is its Director has been giving material support and volunteering teachers needed.

"We feel obliged to take part in planting trees so we can help protect the environment, and so as to respond to the Copenhagen initiatives on challenges for climate change. Last November the entire world gathered attention at the capital of Denmark, Copenhagen where steps to be taken to stem the tide of raising temperatures because of climate change were stressed." Said the tourists, adding: "One of the charters of the Copenhagen resolution reads in part - And there cannot be a greater benefit to confer on the next generation than addressing the environmental issues that have great impact on our well-being."

They pointed out that in keeping with the challenges of the climate change tree planting is a must and without urgent action most of people in Africa are likely to suffer from drought and food shortages. Besides enhancing aesthetics, trees have been found to: increase infiltration and the groundwater, and reduce the effects of soil erosion thus improving water quality and quantity.

The move to involve tourists to plant trees, Ms. Pallangyo says, is her passion towards spearheading the fight on climate change - to improve the environment - and she welcomes other tourists, stakeholders and donors to partner with her institutions.

However, Ms. Pallangyo, insists that in seeking to plant the right trees, care should be taken in choosing the right seed from the tree nursery. "Do you want a beauty that will turn heads or a provider to feast off its fruits?" She asked, and said these are questions one needs to answer before settling on a tree. Different trees lend themselves well to specific functions.

She went on to explain that shade trees may grow a lot larger and may be planted in our home and streets provided enough space from one another is considered. And it is increasingly becoming universally accepted that trees turned into forests are hot spots for diversity of life on earth.