GREEN ADDU

I felt wonderful for been able to contribute and participate in the event held at Hithadhoo on the occasion of the United Nation’s World Environment Day.
For more than 3 decades the United Nation has been leading the world in celebrating June 5th as the day to ignite, inspire, promote, advocate, lobby and execute positive environmental action. And we too as a nation has been following it for sometime now.

Here in Addu We joined the UN and rest of the world in the universal occurrences to celebrate this year’s environment day with a beautification and tree planting program.

So did our president. He lived up to the appellation he acquired at COp15 as “Our global President” by planting a tree National Arboretum in Canberra, the capital of Australia. No matter where on God’s Green Earth he is, I do not doubt, that he would find the means and opportunity to rise up to the occasion and lead us and the world in greening the globe.

Even though our president (the international climate change campaigner and a winner of this year’s Champion of the Earth award) has explicitly stated that his true interest in environmental issues is a pure economic interest, he is the most charismatic environmental leader out there.

Before I got carried away mesmerized by THE ANNI factor in international environmental issues I would rather like to zero in on events and that took place in Hithadhoo. To begin with the tree plantation was not just another humdrum program with a high probability of failure. On the contrary it is the initiation of an ambitious project that is designed to make Addu the garden atoll of Maldives. This project is called Green Addu Project.

Green Addu project at initial stages maybe primarily focused on greening the President’s promised hosting city of the 17th SAARC summit. In the imminent days I’m expecting (and even working for) the program to be mainly fuelled by the NGOs in close association with the government offices, schools, businesses, and police. As planned if Green Addu project is bound to bring about Green Revolution in Addu then planting trees needs to become a habit in the grassroots.

From proletarians to politicians to from youth to local businesses, and from NGO’s to football teams, all need to play a proactive role to ensure that every vacant piece of land in Addu gets filled up with trees. Also in the new land use plan there will be green zones and carbon buffer zones allocated for trees to be planted. Business companies based in Addu can select to conjointly or solely, look after a zone of their choice and their own gardens in these zones. It does not only ensure sustainability but also would stimulate competition among different zones to be greener. I know that Dhiraagu is even now keen on to do this. Maybe Dhiraagu will call their zone GREEN TOUCH!!

I believe it’s of utmost importance to recall all who have contributed to the initiation of project Green Addu. As an ordinary resident of this atoll as a Maldivian I would like to extend my most heartfelt gratitude and appreciation for the tremendous effort very many people have put into it.

First the very brave women of AWDI. Your daring and courageous attitude to go for that extra mile (to GAN on motorbikes in search of trees) is truly inspirational and a winner.

Some might call me I’m promoting Soibbe, the incumbent atoll councilor for his next term in office by thanking him and mentioning his name over here. But honestly I don’t care and I more than anyone else out there understand where my true intention lies. Having that said, I would like to thank Soibbe for been accessible any time anywhere and for never been out of reach during the whole process and I hope this virtue continues.

A very special thank to B-Tek Hussan. He dispatched his whole work force and their job for the day was planting as many trees they could.Call them “bangaalhees” call them “bondhus”, but sure they were nothing short of competent. Hussan was standing next to me in the inauguration ceremony. He told me that for events like this, he will endow with everything he has got to the fullest he possibly can. That is the desired spirit from every entrepreneur.

Thanks to Develop Addu and the team from CDE. You guys played a pivotal role from the planning to practically participating the action on the ground. Particularly I’m grateful for the environmental awareness sessions conducted for Muhibbuddin School students and Feydhoo school Students and I do not doubt that it’s an investment of the future.

Very many thanks goes to the volunteers from TakeCare. You guys truly care.;)
Collectively I thank every signal individual who has contributed to the program, even slightly, and participated in the event.

After the tree planting program I updated the FB with the following status.

“Dear Mr.President. I got to telll you. I missed you today.!! while you were planting trees in National Arboretum Canberra we too were planting hithi gis and reeth gis on this province office Magu. Wish it would be green and shady next time you come here.(in matters concerning the SAARC summit)”

Among others, my very dear and highly intelligent friend replied with the following
.
Ahsan Naseer :lol. you could have written this on his page. that might give a better chance of him seeing this :P (if you wanted him to see this)
trees were planted even before, many times. i wonder how many of them stayed as trees. Is it going to be any different this time? i mean will there be anyone looking after them, or check on them to do the least.

I would like to respond to your comment here as well.
Dude, first of all very many thanks for your comment. You know me better, and you know that I would have had no intention of showing this to the president. Then again here we are talking about facebook, you never know who glances at your profile ;).

Anyway that’s not the point. The point is,Yes. Countless times trees have been planted before. Even we have done it several times back when we were in school. And as for how many how many remained as trees? I don’t know. I would be exaggerating if I say none. As for me the whole point of starting over and redoing what has been done over and over again is to do it differently. I know, your concerns lie in making the greening sustainable. So are mine.

But as you know the challenges and hurdles ahead of us to do so are huge. We don’t get enough volunteers. We can’t find interested youth. Moreover the current cschooling system here almost forbids their students been involved in extracurricular activities except cadetship. Public anticipates a lot from NGOs but often refuses to work with them.

But what I know is we cannot wait to empower the society first, and then direct their energy to community development and volunteerism. Through activities and participation empowerment will arise.

Green Addu is an appropriate platform for that and this time I think change will happen.

Chances of Green Addu blooming are good.:)