Why you should hug a tree

By Sabiha Malik

Founder of The World Bee Project CIC

Trees give bees and pollinators food, shelter, and a home!


Trees are havens for wildlife

Tree canopies provide large, foraging landscapes for honeybees and wild bees and improve the diversity and density of pollinator populations. Trees also provide shelter and food to many other pollinating creatures such as birds, bats, squirrels, and endangered species such as the Grey Slender Loris in the mangrove forests of southern India. In fact, trees protect more than half of all species found on land.

Trees are vital to our survival

They provide micronutrient-rich nuts and fruits essential to staying in good health. They reduce air temperature and humidity and provide ecosystem services critical to human welfare.  They help improve soil quality, reduce flood risks and prevent erosion by holding more water within the ground. By planting trees anywhere in the world, we contribute to global efforts, gradually repairing damaged ecosystems and helping to reduce climate change.

 


Trees combat global warming

Trees clean our air by storing carbon dioxide. They absorb harmful greenhouse gasses that produce climate change and release oxygen into the air. They improve air quality by trapping dust and pollutants such as ammonia, ozone, nitrogen oxides and sulphur dioxide from the air, making it clean and free of toxic materials. Tree shade is a valuable barrier to harmful ultraviolet radiation from the sun.

Trees are beautiful

Setting aside all the other benefits of trees, their beauty and influence on our happiness should render them worthy of protection and preservation. Think of the stately oak down the street, the majestic giant sequoia, the unforgettable baobab, and the thick, green forests of pines. We love trees because they’re beautiful. Picture the flaming red maple in autumn. Imagine cherry trees in blossom during the spring. This world is a much more beautiful place because of trees. Surely they are worthy of a hug!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Sabiha Malik founded The World Bee Project CIC in 2014 to utilise AI and novel technologies to initiate a global perspective, addressing pollinator and biodiversity decline, food insecurity, climate change and threats to human wellbeing as a single interactive, interconnected challenge confronting humanity. Sabiha believes that bees lie at the heart of the relationships that bind the natural and human worlds, and in safeguarding bees lies the means to safeguard life itself.