Rambling About Entropy And Trees

Burundi is a pretty rough place. Drawn-out ethnic civil wars have a way of destabilizing things, and Burundi’s thirteen-year crisis (that more-or-less ended in 2005 despite peace agreement negotiations which continue to this day) did wonders on that front. The economy is in shambles and can barely begin to improve the bombed-out roads or the nearly non-existent healthcare system. Orphans comprise ten percent of the population, and each city has its masses of street kids. This partly explains why thievery is so widespread (I had my phone stolen, almost completely unnoticed, from my front pocket). Although somewhat less prevalent than in several nearby countries, Burundi is also being hit hard with the AIDS pandemic, and child-headed households are common. The average daily salary for a labourer is somewhere around $0.75. Which means that they will likely never taste Frosted Flakes cereal, which, at the time of writing this, has gone up to $22 per box at one of the local imported food supermarkets. Ah yes, one can obtain certain Western creature comforts in the capital city, Bujumbura (and I am glad for some of it); but it doesn’t help the image of white people that there are some of us here willing to spend money that frivolously, right in front of the faces of people who only eat once per day from their pitiful little gardens perched on the edges of vertiginous hillsides. If they were to lose their balance while hoeing their little plots, they might not stop tumbling until reaching the river at the bottom of the valley, which is invariably running rich with eroded red dirt. And that, at least in part, is their own undoing for having pressed their cultivation deep into where the forest used to hold its secrets. They can’t really be blamed, when a slightly bigger plot might mean more of their children will survive; but as a result, the hills are naked. Their exposed skin is exfoliated with every rain and their raw surfaces are blotched right to the tops with the square patterns of agriculture.

Help Channel Burundi believes that things can change. Although it’s far too late for the legendary pristine forest ecosystems to be restored, real change that protects the environment and that significantly benefits the majority of Burundians who are subsistence farmers is definitely possible. Help Channel Burundi has established more than twenty tree nurseries near ecologically important watershed areas, each producing between 75 000 and 250 000 seedlings every planting season. Millions of trees are being planted that will stabilize soils and allow water to penetrate deep into the ground to replenish the water table. They will provide resources to local inhabitants. They will play a role in the hopeful re-establishment of more moderate and dependable weather patterns that will bring back abundant harvests. The communities are happy. Local inhabitants are given meaningful employment and are educated about the importance of environmental stewardship. Previous plantations are effectively maintained and protected. People can provide for their families. And they have hope for the future.