Trees have played a pivotal role in the evolution of life on earth, and in ensuring that earth hosted a viable atmosphere that was beneficial for the development of advanced life forms. In fact, it was planted that first colonized the planet; the first plants appeared around 600 million years ago. The atmosphere of early earth was hostile and consisted mostly of carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide and other noxious gases with little or no oxygen.
However, the development of plant life both on oceans in the form of algae, and eventually on land, led to the atmosphere undergoing a rapid change for the better; this eventually helped life to evolve more advanced life forms. It is apparent that plants continue to play a key role in enriching our planet and all life on it. Here are a few reasons as to why plant plantations are important for all life on earth.
Pollution: It is a fact that all plants inhale noxious carbon dioxide and exhale oxygen thereby replenishing our atmosphere in the process. But here is a little-known factoid about plants and the role they play in mitigating the effects of pollution. In the course of the last two centuries, we have certainly managed to pollute our atmosphere to the point that we often find it hard to draw in a breath of fresh air. But plants often help to filter out carbon mono oxide and other harmful contaminants out of our atmosphere and release clean and fresh oxygen back into our atmosphere. They effectively help to recycle our atmosphere which is why tree plantations are crucial.
Biodiversity: Trees and plants provide valuable shelter to various species from birds to microorganisms. In fact, most of the largest tree plantations can be located in the middle of rainforests like the ones in Brazil, Indonesia, and Vietnam and in other locations across the world. Such tree plantations are often home to a rich and diverse bio life with several species being native only to that region. These trees, apart from providing shelter also provide food to several species which accounts for the rich biodiversity of life in these rain forests.
Conservation of water: Plants and trees play a critical role in maintaining soil integrity and as well as in facilitating water retention through its network of roots. In fact, with forests, more groundwater seeps to the ground and this, in turn, helps to replenish the water table, for the local area.
Lumber: We still use lumber widely for various commercial and residential applications; in fact, it is a thriving industry and one that continues to hire millions worldwide. Given this, and the additional fact that our demand for lumber is going to increase exponentially over the next few years, it makes more sense to set up commercial tree plantations for the same purpose. This is why tree plantations are important as they provide an invaluable resource.
Climate control: Global warming is a fact and a reality and we are right plumb in the initial stages of one. Plants and trees can help mitigate the effects of global warming by soaking up the various greenhouse gases from the atmosphere. Trees absorb toxic gases and other contaminants from the atmosphere and in the process, help to replenish our atmosphere. The cleanup should result in cleaner air, and that we can indeed do something to prevent global warming by planting more trees. Granted that may not sound like much but if each one of us planted a single plant per day, then the results should be quite heartwarming.
Health: Most of our respiratory complications arise on account of breathing in various pollutants. The fact that trees and plants help to filter out the same along with some of the harmful toxic gases out of our atmosphere helps to facilitate better health.
These reasons should make it clear why plants, trees and in fact, tree plantations as a whole, play a crucial role when it comes to life on our planet. It is time we acknowledged the importance of trees in maintaining our rich biodiversity as well as ensure that our atmosphere remains viable. By actively planting trees and plants, we should be able to do just that.