Dec. 82/Jan . 83 RAIN Page 10 ACCESS: International Forestry ORGANIZATIONS The Africa Tree Center In a letter to former Rain editor, John Ferrell, R. T. Mazibuko the founder of ATe, shared these thoughts with us. Dear Mr. Ferrell, Thank you for your very kind letter. I am indeed glad to make contact with you and your association. My people have no agricultural tradition as is known in the East and West. We have just come into contact with civilization, education, etc. about 200 years ago. The rich land of Africa is ruined by soil and soul erosion and exhaustion. Famine is the number one killer; next is malnutrition. To fight all this, I decided to form this organization where each family plants one tree a year. I have to make the presentation very, very attractive and practical to be within the understanding of my people who are 25 million compared with 4LIl million whites. My program imcludes afforesting hills and mountains and every piece of land that is not for agricultural purposes. We also intend to plant trees and blunt water grasses along river banks. I am glad to state that my people are responding very, very well. All I require is finances to buy more and more trees to distribute. My friends in Switzerland have made it possible for me to buy one acre of land in order to raise my own young trees. I hope that in four years time I will be in a position to raise more trees than I have to buy. We of the third world, in fact aU the world's people, should clearly undersand that the soil is our topmost gift which we got from God. As you well know, trees can live without man. man cannot live without trees. Yours Sincerely, R.T. Mazibuko Kwa Dlamahlahla PO Box 90 Plessislaer 4500 Natal, South Africa The Chipko Movement - People Who Hug the Trees Chipko, meaning "people who hug the trees," comes from a legend about avillage woman named Amrita Devi who had been taught to love and protect the trees as she would her family. One day, the Maharajah sent his men to cut trees for his new palace. Arnrita begged the soldiers to take her instead of the trees. "Stand back" they shouted. She refused so they chopped through her body and the bodies of her daughters and 360 other villagers. The Maharajah was angry when the soldiers returned with so few trees, but when he heard the story, he stopped the work on his new palace and set out the next day to visit Amrita's village. He was so moved by the willingness of the people to lay down their lives for the trees that he declared a moratorium on treecutting near the Chipko villages. And today, the villages are still guarded by their beloved trees, an oasis in a desolate desert. The Chipko movement appeared in the early 1960s and continues today in its efforts to protect many Himalayan forest areas and to organize national afforestation programs. Chipko Movement Dasholi Gram Swrajya Mandai Gopeshwar District Chamoli, U.P. INDIA AFRICA TREE CENTRE KWA DLAMAHLAHLA rain and thus prevent tam\n8 PrOvide \)8$ fof tanning
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