Indigenous trees celebrated at botanical gardens

Poortview — The Walter Sisulu National Botanical Garden commemorated the second annual Indigenous Tree Day, by joining with various departments and community members to plant 30 trees at the botanical garden on April 15.

Indigenous Tree Day was established by the African Tree Seeds Group in 2024 to work with schools to plant 30 trees on their school premises every year across more than 15 African countries.

Representatives from the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE), the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI), Johannesburg City Parks and Zoos (JCPZ), the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), and the Association of Parks and Recreation Africa (APRA) joined forces with various residents and park visitors, as well as a group of monitors from the Black Eagle Project Roodekrans.

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Tree planting activities took place at all 11 national botanical gardens, two national zoological gardens, three municipal botanical gardens and one zoological garden.

This nationwide effort aims to plant at least 30 different indigenous tree species in the SANBI and municipality-owned gardens to celebrate indigenous tree day.

“The Indigenous Tree Day aims to educate society about the value of indigenous trees, build national capacity to grow indigenous trees by increasing efforts into finding seeds of a large number of species naturally and sharing propagation protocols and best practices,” said Deputy Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, Bernice Swarts.

“The day also aims to engage, inspire, and educate society, especially the youth, to conserve biodiversity by developing community-led efforts to restore ecosystems.”