South Africa celebrates Arbor Week on 29 August – 4 September this year. This week helps us understand the importance of trees and the role they play within the environment. National Arbour Week is a time when South Africans of all ages are encouraged to celebrate the beauty and importance of trees. People from all aspects of the community are urged to get involved and thousands are educated and made aware of the benefits of the many different aspects of forestry.

As part of this celebration CapeNature and the Heuningvlei community join hands in launching the cedar tree seedling nursery. The Clanwilliam Cedar tree is listed as endangered and needs our help to survive.

Heuningvlei community received funding amounting to 14 500 pounds from a bioprospecting permit issued by CapeNature. The Heuningvlei community then implemented the project wherein they build the cedar seedling nursery. The nursery belongs to the Heuningvlei community and will be managed by them with support from CapeNature. The community will be able to sell the seedlings to CapeNature and all involved with cedar tree planting events and generate income.

CapeNature will also continue with “Plant One Million Trees Movement” campaign and encourages people to plant indigenous trees at the right time of the year as a symbol of sustainable environmental management. CapeNature staff across all landscapes have traditionally been involved in many trees planting campaigns and have done wonderful work to support schools and communities with greening initiatives. Typically, these are linked to days on the environmental calendar such as Arbour Week. This initiative seeks to boost these successes and bring them under the Plant a Million Trees campaign.

The CapeNature Plant One Million Trees Movement will plant locally indigenous trees or non-invasive fruit trees in appropriate areas such as schools or urban or peri-urban communal open spaces. Please help by planting trees at home or working with your school, church, or local government to plant trees.

Arbour Day is a wonderful opportunity to plant a tree to green our country, mitigate against climate change and of course a chance to share more information about the bountiful biodiversity of our province.